Turning red for a Slifer
by Fanfictionlover1212
Summary: An ambitious teenage girl luckily scores herself a place at the famous Duel Academy. Despite joining the academy with the dream of entering the Pro leagues, she ends up falling for a guy who is out of her league. Find out what happens when she meets Duel Academy's best.
1. Chapter 1 - My journey begins

Author Note: Hi everyone. I hope you enjoy this fan-fiction story of Turning red for a Slifer. Reviews would also be appreciated about each chapter or the story as a whole. No flaming, please! If you don't like my story, don't read it. Simple as that. If you do happen to like it, please make sure to add it to your favorite or follow me.

As you can probably tell, I am absolutely crazy over some of the male characters in both the Original Yu-gi-oh series and Yu-gi-oh GX.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh and Yu-gi-oh GX, or any of their characters and settings. I do own all original characters and settings.

My name is Rebecca Anderson. Today I am waiting for a letter that has the potential to change my life forever. If I have passed Duel Academy's written entrance examination, then I am one step closer to achieving my dream of dueling in the Pro leagues. There's a knock on the door. The mail has arrived.

"Bec, the mail's here." my best friend Amber called.

"Yeah, I'll go get it," I replied, rushing towards the door.

The postman hands me two things:

1\. A letter addressed to me.

2\. The newspaper - Domino Weekly.

"Thanks," I said, taking the items from him and closing the door.

"So it's finally here huh?" she questioned. "The moment of truth."

"Looks like it," I said, holding the envelope tightly in my hand. "Amber I'm worried" I continued. "What if I didn't pass...?"

"Just relax, I'm sure you passed." She reassured me. "And besides, if you didn't you can always try again next year."

"I guess so," I mumbled. I had to admit what she just said did make me feel a bit better, but for some reason, I still felt reluctant to open it. One percentage, one grade could change the outcome of everything - my dreams, my future and so much more. Sighing I put the letter down on the kitchen bench, "I don't think I can do this" I whispered to myself.

"Oh come on Bec, you can't be serious!" she groaned. "You're going to have to open that thing sometime." She laughed "Ok I'll make you a bet before you even decide to open that thing I will have read the whole of Domino weekly." she said, waving the newspaper in front of my face. She opened it and began to flick through the pages.

"So much for reading." I coughed.

"Boring, boring, boring... ah here we go" she said opening up and advertisement for Duel Academy. "Here's your future school."

The advertisement had a picture of a good looking boy with blue hair and blue eyes. He had a duel disk (a strange one, different to mine) on his wrist, his arms folded in a serious manner. Behind him photo-shopped in was the Cyber End Dragon, one of the strongest fusion monsters in the game. The motto below read "Stop dreaming, start dueling" - Duel Academy.

"Now this is what you will be missing if you don't open that god damn envelope. This hottie!" she winked, pointing towards the boy in the advertisement.

"Ahaha Amber." I giggled. "You know they get models and actors for these things right? I bet that guy doesn't even go to the academy."

"Well, you can be sure to tell me, when you're in the academy yourself," Amber smiled, handing me the envelope.

"I guess you're right," I replied. Taking one last deep breath I tore the envelope open. Then pulling out the letter I unfolded it and began to read.

The paper read as follows -

"Duel Academy Entrance Exam Results"

Applicant number: 2354

Applicant full name: Rebecca Anderson

Written examination score - Pass: 52%

"Phew! Looks like I passed" I sighed in relief. Slipping my examination results back into the envelope, I couldn't help but smile. "Now I can finally follow my dreams of becoming the world's number one duelist."

"Hey Bec, how did you go?" Amber asked.

"I passed," I replied shyly.

"Let me see!" she playfully pulling the envelope away from me. "Barely, come on I mean what is that Bec?" she said, poking her tongue out. I knew that she was only teasing.

"Fifty-two percent is considered a pass Amber! And besides, there is still the field test next week." I continued "Written exams aren't my thing, but dueling is."

"I suppose so." she agreed. Despite cutting it really close in the written exam Amber knew that I was a good duellist. "Just go and win," she said.

"I will. I bet that field test will be a piece of cake." Giving a fist pump in the air I shouted. "Pro-leagues here I come!"

"Get into the academy first you dork!" she joked.

"I won't let you down," I said, giving her a silly salute.

"And remember what you're dueling for." she added.

"Right!" I said nodding.

"That hottie!"

"Amber!" I gasped.

"Haha only kidding Bec, the pro-leagues!" she laughed.

"That's more like it," I said, giving her a thumbs up. I then started to head towards my room.

"Ok, time to prepare my deck."


	2. Chapter 2 - Get your game on!

Finally, the day had arrived. It was the day of the field tests.

"Ok, we've come this far just don't screw this up." I told myself, as I continued to straighten my black hair. "There, all set!" I said placing my pink GHD straighter down on the table. My outfit consisted of a black tank top and red mini skirt, which I wore with a pair of black knee high boots.

"Oooh, you look nice!" Amber said admiring my outfit, as she poked her head into the bathroom door.

I laughed. "If I wanna duel well then I've gotta look the part. Nah hopefully there will be some cute guys there."

"Haha trust you to think of that." she giggled.

"Anyway I've got to leave now or I'm going to be late," I said, opening the door.

"Good luck!" she called. "Make me proud."

"Will do. thanks, Amber." I said as I started to run off towards my destination.

Taking out my cell phone, I looked at the Duel Academy field test information. According to the email duels start at 9:00 a.m. Since I left the house at 8:00 a.m I knew I had plenty of time to get to the duel arenas. Without much to do on my way, I decided to check my email. Tapping on the envelope icon the application opened up and my email began to update. "Hey, I haven't seen this one before." I said puzzled, as I saw an email marked yesterday from Duel Academy I opened the email and began to read.

Dear Applicant,

Due to a large volume of students applying to our Academy this year, the time of the field tests will be rescheduled to the time of 8:00am.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Sincerely Dr. Vellian Crowler.

Suddenly my blood ran cold. Oh no, no no! How could I have let this happen. I hadn't even started dueling and I had already stuffed everything up. "Oh!" I moaned in frustration as I placed my head in my hands and sat on the floor. A tear trickled down my cheek. I tried my best to hold back the never ending water works, but I couldn't. Everything seemed hopeless.

Then my phone buzzed. It was a text from Amber.

The text read.

King of games prepare to be dethroned, go kick ass today.

Never give up Bec, I believe in you xox.

Amber was right, I couldn't give up now. Not after how far I had come. I stood up and wiped the tears off my face. "I'm going to make it on time to that arena and I'm gonna duel!" I then started to run as fast as I could sprinting in the direction of the duellng areas. I was like a machine nothing or no-one could stop me, I was on a mission. Finally, I had reached the outside of the large building. I was absolutely exhausted and panting like crazy.

"Mark all the no-shows, no shows!" I heard a man's voice say. The two ladies who stood beside him nodded and started to scribble on their clipboards. I took a breath to say something when someone spoke up before me.

"Wait I'm no, no-show! You can count Jaden Yuki as present thank you." I turned to look where the voice was coming from. There climbing the railings was a boy will brown hair. He was short of breath and sounded just as tired from running as I was.

"You can also count Rebecca Anderson as present," I said, walking up to the man in the suit.

The brunette looked at me and smiled. "Sweet! Looks like I'm not the only one who slept through their alarm."

"You both better hurry." one of the assistant ladies advised. "I think they're finishing off the last few duels."

Jaden and I entered the dueling area, "Wow check out this place." I said in awe, as I looked around the dueling arena. "I mean this place is huge!"

"Yeah." Jaden agreed. "Also check out all of this dueling action." He was right. I glanced around the dueling arena I could see duels going on left, right, and center. "Come on Bec, let's go" Jaden yelled, running towards a large set of seats on the far end of the arena. "I think we're meant to wait here for our duels."

"Ok, wait up!" I said running over to the seats where he was. Wow, I thought to myself, two minutes into knowing this guy and he is already calling me by my nickname. Maybe making friends would be easier than I imagined. I smiled, just like Amber said it would everything was falling into place.

"Awesome check out that duel." Jaden pointed to one of the ongoing duels. Dueling was a boy in a yellow jacket with grey hair gelled back from his face. He spoke with extreme articulation, seeming to have every move well thought out and calculated. At the moment the boy had the monster force raider out, he played this in combination with the card ring of destruction. He won the duel.

"Who's that?" Jaden looked around hoping for answers. He was obviously impressed by the guy's dueling skills.

"That's Bastion Misawa." I looked behind me to see a short boy with round glasses and green hair. "They say that he got the highest written results out of all of us applicants."

"Woah!" Jaden and I exclaimed in unison. "I barely passed" Jaden added.

"Yeah me too." the boy looked down in disappointment. "By the way, I'm Syrus. I get test anxiety." This boy really needed to work on his confidence I thought to myself. He and Jaden seemed to be polar opposites.

"The name is Jaden Yuki and this is my friend Rebecca"

"Nice to meet you Syrus," I smiled, extending my hand for a shake. He blushed slightly as my skin made contact with his hand.

"Arghhh I can't wait any longer!" Jaden cried, impatiently hopping from foot to foot. "I mean when are we gonna duel Bec?"

"Wait." Syrus frowned. "You guys haven't dueled yet? That duel that just ended was the last one."

"Ahhhh shit!" "What now?" I asked.

"Why don't you talk to that guy?" a boy with red hair pointed towards a tall figure with a long blonde ponytail and quite an interesting fashion sense. "They say Crowler calls all the shots here."

I nearly pissed myself laughing. "That's the famous Vellian Crowler? You've got to be kidding me! What is even the gender of that thing?" I was laughing so hard now that my sides began to hurt. The only other person who seemed to see the humor in this was Jaden, who kept blurting out even funnier comments on top of my own. This was not helping my crazy laughing fit at all.

"Guys you better go and talk to him soon." Syrus insisted. "He looks like he's about to finish up and leave"

I quickly bolted towards this urgh "Crowler." I took a deep breath and said in my softest, sweetest voice. "Excuse me Mr Crowler"

The man whipped his head in my direction. "I have a PHD in dueling so it's Dr Crowler to you!" he snapped.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I apologized, smiling sweetly. "Dr. Crowler" I begin again. "My friend and I haven't had a chance to duel yet..."

Dr. Crowler cut in. "And you and this friend were late, yes?"

"Ummmmm yeah, just a little," I replied timidly.

"Well I'm sorry, but the both of you will have to come back next year."

"But please Dr. Crowl..."

"Late is rude!" he yelled, spitting on me slightly.

I was just about to walk off defeated when I heard a stern voice behind me.

"You should give them a chance Dr Crowler." A tall boy with blue hair and blue eyes appeared. He was wearing a long white coat. His expression was serious and his crossed arms gave the "you don't really wanna mess with me" vibe." Mmmmm so good looking, I thought to myself... wait hang on a second. This was the guy from the advertisement!

"Z-zane..." Dr. Crowler stuttered.

"Just think of what Chancellor Shepard would say if he knows that you cut applicants without even letting them duel. Hardly seems fair." his eyes narrowed.

"Oh Zane, I suppose you're right." Crowler sighed.

What? No way! Who was this guy? He was just a student and it seemed that even Crowler was afraid of him.

"Alright, I will be the boys dueling opponent. Alexis, I want you to teach this delinquent a lesson about being on time," he said, pointing at me.

The blue haired boy coughed. He was not impressed by the unprofessional behavior of his professor.

"I mean would you do in honor of being Miss Rebecca's dueling proctor?" Crowler gulped correcting himself.

"Zane" nodded in approval.

"Gladly Dr. Crowler." A tall girl with sandy blonde hair bowed her head. She shot me a cold stare, just the way she looked at me sent shivers down my spine. I could see that she wasn't just after some friendly competition. What was it with me and blondes? We never seemed to get along.

"Ready to watch me mop the floor with her Zane?" the blonde winked, cocking her head to one side flirtatiously.

"Oh, she's one of those!" I muttered under my breath.

Zane then cleared his throat. Looking down he began to walk in my direction. He glanced up again, his eyes meeting mine. "Good Luck!" he whispered, a small smiling forming on his face.

"Urgh thanks, I guess," I said sheepishly.

"Our dueling arena is this way." Alexis motioned towards an arena at the far end of the building. I followed her lead.

"What was your name again? Rebecca was it?" she questioned.

"Yeah!" I said smiling. "You're Alexis right?"

Maybe I was too quick to judge, I thought to myself. Maybe she isn't that bitchy after all.

"Oh well just for your information Rebecca." she shot her head around. "Don't get too excited about Zane, he pity's weak duelists like you," she smirked.

"We'll see who needs pity after the duel," I said, through gritted teeth. I had tried to be nice to this girl, but now she was really starting to tick me off.

We both reached the dueling arena.

"Begin the duel!" Crowler ordered.

"Duel!" we both called in sync.

Duel:

Life point count: Rebecca - 4000

Alexis - 4000

"Alright, since you're the rookie you can go first" Alexis sneered.

"Not too bad," I said, taking a look at the cards in my hand. "First I activate the magic card - Cost Down. This allows me to reduce the number of stars of one of my monsters so that I can summon it straight to the field. I summon the Dark Witch in attack mode! I also play one card face-down and end my turn."

"Is that all Rebecca?" Alexis taunted. "I call upon my Cyber Tutu. Her special ability allows me to surpass your monsters and attack your life points directly. Go Cyber Tutu!"

"Not so fast Alexis," I called out. "You've activated my trap - Spell Binding Circle. This trap snares your Cyber Tutu reducing her life points to a measly 300. Dark witch attack!"

Cyber Tutu disappeared from the field and Alexis' life points dropped dramatically.

Life point count: Rebecca - 4000

Alexis - 2500

"Grrrrr." Alexis didn't sound too pleased. "Not bad, but how will you deal with this? - Tribute to the doomed." Suddenly a large hand wrapped in bandages appeared on the field violently grabbing my dark witch.

"No, my Dark witch!" I exclaimed. As the large hand continued to pull her into the ground.

"Bye bye Dark Witch!" Alexis mocked. "You won't be missed."

She's gonna pay for that, I thought to myself.

"Now you have no monster to protect you," Alexis stated the obvious. "I use the magic card - Monster Reborn to bring back my Cyber Tutu from the graveyard. Cyber Tutu attack her directly!"

"Arghh" I groaned, as I watched my life points drop by 1000.

Life point count: Rebecca - 3000

Alexis - 2500

"That about evens the score," Alexis smiled smugly.

"Oh, this duel has just started." I had to stay strong. "I summon the Luster Dragon in attack mode! Rid the field of her Cyber Tutu!" I yelled.

Yes! I was kicking her ass.

Life point count Rebecca - 3000

Alexis - 1600

"Some dumb luck!" Alexis scowled.

I smiled quite satisfied with myself. Alexis was a good duellist and all but this time, I had caught her off guard.

"Prepare to lose! I play my Etoile Cyber and my Blade Skater in attack mode. Then with the magic card -Polymerization I fuse my two monsters together to create Cyber Blader."

"Big deal Alexis." I laughed. "All fusion monsters need to wait one turn to attack after being summoned. Who's the rookie now?"

"Haha, you are just as clueless, as you are pathetic! Not once I play this card - Quick attack."

"Oh no!" I bit my lip nervously.

"Cyber Blader attack her Luster Dragon!"

"Luster Dragon is no more." she cackled.

Life point count: Rebecca - 2800

Alexis - 1600

"Oh man! She is a tough opponent. Right now I have no monsters strong enough to take down her Cyber Blader, so I have to go on the defense. My monster may be destroyed but my overall life points will be spared. I had to think logically if I didn't want to lose.

"Mystical Elf in defense mode." that was all I could do.

"How predictable." she scoffed. "A desperate move, for a desperate duellist. I now summon Harpie Lady in attack mode and play the trap - Stop Defence."

My Mystical Elf immediately rose to attack mode.

I'm so screwed, I thought to myself.

"Now attack my monsters!" Alexis yelled.

Life Point Count Rebecca - 200

Alexis - 1600

This can't be it. This can't be the end I told myself. It seemed like all odds were against me. There I was two monsters staring me down, I had no strong monsters in my hand let alone no spells or traps to help me defeat them. It was all down to my next draw. If I draw the right card I may be able to turn this duel around.

"Believe" I whispered, as I scrunched my eyes shut and drew the card on top of my deck.

I drew the card. The whole atmosphere was so quiet that I could've heard a pin drop. I brought the card towards myself and reluctantly opened my eyes.

"Yes, just what I needed," I smiled, as I was quite satisfied with my draw. "Alexis you've put up a good fight, but now I'm about to end this duel."

"You're bluffing, obviously." she rolled her eyes.

"Oh really?" I grinned raising my eyebrow. "I play Lord of dragons, and I add the card flute of summoning dragon. One flute lets me summon two dragons from my hand to the field. With that, I summon my Blue Eyes White Dragon and my Red Eyes Black Dragon."

Everyone gasped.

"W-wait this can't be happening, it's not possible." Alexis stammered.

"When you have faith in your deck, anything is possible," I said triumphantly. "Now Blue Eyes White Dragon and Red Eyes Black Dragon end this duel!"

"Noooo!" Alexis screamed as her life points dropped to zero.

"Yay Rebecca!" I heard Syrus cheer.

Jaden ran down to the dueling arena, he immediately gave me a high-five. "Wow, Bec you've got game!"

"Thanks, guys," I said, smiling at the two boys.

"I bet this year is going to be awesome!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

I then headed towards the arena exit, grinning from ear to ear. Walking out I passed Zane.

"Welcome to Duel Academy." he said.


	3. Chapter 3 - Welcome to Duel Academy

The plane ride was long, but at least there was in flight entertainment. I managed to watch three movies before we landed. "Welcome to your new home, away from home. Duel Academy!" the flight captain announced.

I was flooded with excitement. This is going to be a fun year! I thought to myself, as the plane slowly began to descend. Good thing that I already made some friends. What were their names again, Jaden and Syrus? I hoped to see them around, they'd make the place much more interesting. Even the Academy's top duellist Zane seemed like a pretty down to earth guy." I'd be lucky to bump into him on campus." I blushed just at the thought. "I'll probably have to get in line, though." I laughed. (All the girls seemed to be crazy over him.)

When I arrived, I was presented with a red blazer. "Cool uniform," I said, admiring the bright red color. (I loved the color red.) As I gazed around at the other students, I was overcome with confusion. Not everyone had the same school uniform. Some students were wearing red like me, some in yellow, and some in blue. "I wonder what this all means." I thought to myself.

Consumed by all my thoughts I suddenly forgot where I was going. THUD "Watch where you're going Slifer Slacker!" I heard a voice snap. I looked up to see a tall boy wearing blue, with spiky jet black hair.

"I'm sorry" I apologised.

"Hmmph." He lifted his nose up in the air and continued walking.

"Well he's friendly" I muttered to myself.

Again I saw another student. This time a girl wearing yellow. "Um excuse me" I politely caught her attention. She looked across at me, her eyes becoming extremely wide. "Ewwww it's a Slifer!" she shrieked. "Get it away!" She sprinted as fast as she could away from me.

"Is my breath that bad?" I questioned myself, puffing lightly into my cuffed hand. It seemed that everyone couldn't stand being within a few centimetres of me.

"Hey, you're in Slifer too? Sweet!"

I'd recognise that voice anywhere. "Jaden, hi" I spun around.

"Hey, Bec." Jaden began to walk slowly towards me.

I began to shuffle backwards nervously. Wavering my hand in front of my mouth.

Jaden frowned, unclear about my actions. "What's wrong Bec, are you sick or something?"

"Um..." I pondered, desperately trying to think of a reason for my strange behavior.

"Oh I have bad breath, don't I? That's cool, I can always go and brush my teeth again if you want. Then hopefully you won't mind hanging out with me." He quickly turned around, his cheeks slightly red with embarrassment.

I softly giggled. "Jaden wait, I was going to ask you the same thing about me."

"No way! Your breath is minty fresh." Jaden smiled giving me a thumbs up.

"Yeah you too," I smiled back.

"Phew!" Jaden sighed in relief.

"It's just I don't get something," I said puzzled. "It seems that everyone can't stand the sight of me, let alone have the courtesy to be nice to me. I mean what's up with that?"

"It's not you," Jaden replied. "Its this." he lightly tugged at my red blazer. "It seems that the other dorms aren't too fond of us Slifers"

"Oh, I see!" I suddenly had a light bulb moment.

"Wanna come back to my room? Chumley is pretty good at explaining the whole different dorm thing"

"Ok cool!" I said, following Jaden back to his dorm room.

Later that day...

"Hurry up guys we're going to be late for the Slifer welcoming dinner!" Syrus yelled. The three of us clumsily stumbled over each other as we rushed into the dining hall.

We all quickly sat down at a table. The meals were already laid out at each seat. They consisted of sardines, rice and some strange brown mushy thing that I couldn't even identify. I heard whining and grumbling from students everywhere.

"This is our welcoming dinner?" A boy with brown hair asked in disgust.

"Check out our headmaster, it's a cat." said another girl.

There on the middle of the headmaster's table was a ginger cat.

"Meow" the cat yawned. It then stretched its body across the table.

Then a tall, lean man entered the room. He had long black hair in a ponytail and wore square framed glasses.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to the Slifer dorm. I am Professor Banner. "Before we eat why don't we start the evening by going around the room and saying something about ourselves?" he said. He looked like a friendly guy.

I turned my attention away from Professor Banner towards my new friends. Much to my astonishment, Jaden was already stuffing his face full of food.

"Oh man, this stuff is delicious!" Jaden said, nearly choking on his food.

"Jaden," Syrus warned. "He's looking over this way!"

"So what? I'm starving!" Jaden protested placing more and more food into his mouth.

"Jaden we mean it" I hissed at him. "He's walking over this way"

Now Professor Banner was standing right in front of our table, and staring straight at Jaden

"Oh boy, he's done it now." I thought to myself.

All three of us froze waiting for a response from the professor.

"Since some of us can't wait" Professor Banner smiled. "Let's dig in!"

After the interesting events of the welcoming dinner Jaden, Syrus and I decided to hang out in their dorm room.

"Man! That Professor Banner sure can cook." Jaden exclaimed rubbing his stuffed belly.

"Yeah and he also seems like a pretty nice guy" Syrus added.

"A lot nicer than Dr Crowler." I joked.

Both the boys laughed.

Then out of no-where Jaden's PDA (Personal Dueling Assistant) started to buzz. He had a video message. Syrus and I crowded around as he opened the message. I gasped in surprised when I saw that the message was from no-one other than the same guy that I had bumped into earlier today.

"Hey Slifer Slacker." he sneered. "Tonight it is on, meet me at the Obelisk dueling arena at midnight. Let's make this more interesting the winner can get the losers rarest card."

"You're on!" Jaden said pumping his fist in the air. I knew he could never back down from a challenge.

Then Chumley turned to face us. He was already in his pyjamas lying down on his top bunk bed. "If that's Chazz Princeton you're only asking for trouble," he advised, sleepily rolling over again.

So that's the jerks name!" I said, to myself.

Jaden and Syrus began to rush out the door.

"Bec are you coming?" Jaden asked eagerly.

Suddenly I was overcome with tiredness. "Jaden, I um..." my words were swallowed with a huge yawn.

"Don't worry Rebecca you must be tired. Go and get a good night's rest." Syrus assured gently.

"Aw!" Jaden moaned in disappointment. "You're gonna miss a great duel and..."

"We'll tell you about it in the morning, goodnight Bec." Syrus interrupted Jaden.

"Goodnight guys," I said, sleepily rubbing my eyes again.

I headed back to my room. The other two girls in my dorm already fast asleep and even snoring. I needed to get some rest too, it was only my first day at Duel Academy but I was absolutely exhausted. I brushed teeth and changed into my pajamas, then I wearily got into bed.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell into a deep sleep.


	4. Chapter 4 - Class time

Early morning...

"Rebecca wake up!" a hand roughly shook me.

"Jaden, let her sleep!" I heard a voice protest. "And besides, we're not meant to be here."

"Not meant to be where Sy? The girls dorms?"

"Exactly!" the other voice squeaked.

"Well, she's always in our dorm and..."

"Ok, guys I'm awake," I said, finally sitting up.

"Good morning to you too!" Jaden grinned.

"Sorry, we woke you" Syrus apologized.

"No worries." I forced a smile. I still didn't feel fully recharged for the day ahead. "Oh!" I suddenly remembered. "Who won the duel?"

"It was a draw." Syrus blurted out before Jaden could say anything. "It could've gone either way."

Jaden slightly frowned. "No way! I would have totally won if I got to draw my next card."

Syrus and I giggled as Jaden attempted to justify himself.

"Anyway, enough of that," I said, stepping out of my bed. "I've got to get ready for class."

Jaden and Syrus nodded and sat down on the adjacent bunk bed.

"That means guys, I've got to change!" I said, playfully shooing them.

"Ok, we'll see you in class Bec," Jaden said walking to the door his cheeks slightly red.

I laughed to myself as I closed the door behind them. Then I began to change into my uniform.

In Class...

Sitting in Crowler's class had me bored out of my mind. "So many things to remember." I thought to myself, as I struggled to keep up writing notes. I always preferred the practical component of dueling in comparison to the theoretical component. "I doubt Yugi Muto thinks of all this stuff when he duels." I murmured to myself.

After finishing a long tangent on the Egyptian God Cards, Dr. Crowler began to call out students from the class and ask them questions. "Not this" I grumbled to myself, trying my best to avoid eye contact with him.

Currently, Alexis Rhodes was answering one of his questions.

"Duel monster cards can be grouped into normal monster cards, fusion monster cards, ritual monster cards, effect monster cards, trap cards and spell cards," she answered confidently. She then took a breath and continued. "Trap cards can be divided into normal traps, counter traps, continuous traps."

Just when I thought she had finished... "Spell cards can be separated into normal spells, continuous spells, equip spells, quick play spells, ritual spells and field spells."

"Perfect!" Dr. Crowler sang, "Well done Alexis. Of course, I wouldn't expect anything less from my blue Obelisks."

"Yes Dr. Crowler." she said seriously, as she sat back down.

"Hmmm now who else to question?" he pondered, prodding chin with his index finger.

Unexpectedly class was interrupted, as someone entered the room. Squinting my eyes to take a better look I saw that it was Zane.

"Good morning Zane." Crowler politely acknowledged the boy's presence.

"Good morning Dr. Crowler." Zane replied back.

"Ah here's a good idea." Crowler chuckled to himself. "Why don't you ask a question to one of the students, huh Zane?"

"Sure Dr. Crowler." Zane obliged obediently.

Then his eyes slowly began to scan the class...

"Anyone but me, anyone but me!" I prayed.

I looked up and saw Zane's eyes. They were fixated on me.

"Shit!" I thought to myself trying to look away.

"Rebecca." he said.

"Huh?" He remembered my name. I was shocked.

"Yeah." I said, my voice wavering nervously.

"Stand up Anderson!" Crowler mocked. All of the obelisk students started to laugh.

"Shut up losers!" I thought to myself, standing up.

"Explain to me what a field spell is?" he asked in a serious tone.

"Um let's see..." I thought for a few seconds. I took a large breath. "A field spell card is able to change the entire state of play for both you and your opponent. They can be activated anytime during your main phase, fields spell usually serve the purpose of boosting the Attack and Defence attributes of certain types of monsters. Any card that is currently occupying the field zone must be sent to the Graveyard first in order to activate a new one."

After I finished speaking there was a long silence. Impatient to know the outcome I broke the silence. "So how'd I do?"

"Very impressive," Zane mumbled to himself softly, but loud enough for me to hear.

"Dr. Crowler as always you've proved yourself to be an excellent teacher." Zane praised.

"Oh yes, I um, well...thank you!" Dr. Crowler was chuffed.

Zane then bowed to Crowler, turned his back and walked out of the class.

"Wow, Bec." Jaden nudged me whilst winking. "Two days into Duel Academy and Zanes hung up on you."

"Every girl's dream right?" Syrus muttered to himself, rolling his eyes.

Overhearing them both Alexis began to scowl behind me.

"Don't be silly guys" I reassured them. "Nothing is going to happen between us"

I sighed "But that doesn't mean I don't want anything to." I thought to myself.

Hours after class...

It had yet again been another long day at the academy. I had just finished having dinner at the dining hall, so I thought it would be a good idea to go for a bit of a walk.

I spotted a lighthouse in the distance. "Seems like a nice quiet spot to go and think." I thought, heading down to the building by the deep blue sea. "Oh man! The view was absolutely beautiful, just seeing the way the moonlight hit the water. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath of the ocean, I heard footsteps.

There standing next to me was Zane.

"So you like to come out here and think huh?" he questioned.

"Yeah I guess so," I replied looking up at him.

"That makes two of us," he smiled. This time a large one.

There was a brief moment of silence between us.

"You know." he began. "Ever since you've arrived at this academy, I've been keeping an eye on you." he gazed out towards the ocean.

"But why?" I asked quite puzzled.

"Your dueling skills are unprecedented and you've only joined the academy," he said, looking back at me. "What do you hope to gain when you graduate?"

"One day I hope to be the best duelist there ever was. The King of Games, but a female version." I replied.

He laughed softly to himself. "So you hope to enter the Pro leagues?"

"Yeah, that's my dream," I said. "I just hope it's something I can achieve."

"With your dueling skills, you've got nothing to worry about." he assured me.

"Thanks," I said smiling.

Then suddenly I glanced down at my watch, "Oh crap it's midnight already, I've got to get back to my dorm!" I turned around to start walking away when Zane grabbed my arm.

"Rebecca." he said fixing his gaze on me.

He said my name again!

"I wish you the best of luck with all of your ventures." he continued.

"Thanks and you too," I said now sprinting off fast as I could towards my dorm.

Reaching my dorm room, I quickly changed into my pajamas and hopped into bed. Wow. I thought to myself. That was the first time I actually talked to Zane outside class and he seemed like a really nice guy. "I wonder if he's this nice to all of the other Slifers." Closing my eyelids, I fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5 - Thinking about him

Now two weeks at Duel Academy had passed. Even though my classes were boring, I knew that I had to stay on top of my game if I wanted to move up to Ra yellow. Luckily I had Jaden and Syrus by my side, also I had Amber my best friend whom I made sure to call every day. All was going well, all was going to plan, but there was one person who I absolutely couldn't stop thinking about - Zane Truesdale!

It was early morning, I was in the middle of a dream. The thoughts of his blue hair, blue eyes, and cute smile circled in my head over and over again.

"Rebecca I want you!" Zane cooed. (in my dream)

"Arghhh!" I screamed, hitting the alarm that began to ring in my ears. In the shock, I also threw the alarm clock.

"Woah!" Jaden said dodging the thrown alarm clock as it flew out the door. "What's up with you?"

"Must be a bad dream," Syrus added.

"Not exactly guys," I said, rubbing the back of my head. I was feeling just as confused as they were.

"Uh guys, can I ask you something?" I slowly questioned.

"Yes, sure!" Syrus replied cheerfully.

"What do you guys know about Zane Truesdale?" I continued. "I mean I know he's the school's top duellist and all, but what else do you know about him?"

"Tell me what you wanna know?" Syrus replied quite enthusiastic. "His favorite color, his favorite food, most watched T.V show?"

"Oh my goodness Syrus, that is so creepy! How do you know all this stuff him?" I asked shocked.

"You mean how do I know all those things about my brother?" Syrus queried.

"Wait hold up, Zane's your brother?" my jaw dropped.

"The last name Truesdale wasn't an obvious giveaway?" Jaden chuckled.

"Oh right!" I said, blushing now feeling really stupid. "But you guys look so different!"

"Yeah, mom says Zane's got the dueling skills, but I've got the good looks in the family," Syrus said, sounding quite proud.

Jaden and I shared a look and laughed.

"Anyway, we're gonna be late for Professor Banner's class," Jaden said walking towards the door.

"Ok, I'll see you guys in 20 minutes," I said, closing the door to get ready.

Once again I had finished all of my classes and began to head back to the Slifer dorms. I had my dorm room all to myself as my roommates Sarah and Rose had transferred to North Academy.

It's nice to finally have some quiet time to myself I thought, as I made some chamomile tea. I then changed into a comfy long t-shirt and sat on my bottom bunk. After my I finished my tea, I plugged in my earphones and began to listen to some music. The soft voice of Taylor swift had me dozing off when...

KNOCK KNOCK

Someone began tapping at my door.

"Who is it?" I drowsily called out. As I stood up from my bunk bed and began to walk towards the door.

I opened it. There was Zane.

"Rebecca, I hope this isn't a bad time?" he asked.

'No, not at all." I said, politely trying to hold back a yawn.

Then when I remembered what I was wearing. The thin t-shirt ended about half way up my thighs, exposing a lot of skin. My hands nervously tugged down on each side of the t-shirt, attempting to cover myself more. Note to self - wear pants next time.

Zane's eyes flickered, looking me up and down, he was slightly blushing.

"I was just wondering..."he continued. "If you would..."

"Yeah," I said, gazing up at him.

My heart began to beat faster. Was he really going to ask me...

"If you were interested in moving up to Ra Yellow?" he finished.

"Oh, so much for that idea!" I thought to myself.

"Yeah sure," I said trying to sound enthusiastic.

"Ok, I'll talk to Chancellor Sheppard about it, Bye." he said, rigidly walking out the door.

"See he's not interested." said a voice in my head "You're over thinking things."

"I guess so," I mumbled to myself, shutting the door.

Zane's Point of View

"Idiot!" I scolded myself, walking off shaking my head. I hadn't done what I really came to do. My objective visiting Rebecca was to ask her to the Obelisk annual dance, but what did I do? Stuff it up!

Flashback -

"Zane I trust all is going well with the organization of the Obelisk dance?" Chancellor Sheppard questioned.

"Yes, Chancellor Sheppard." I nodded. "All expenses have been covered and based on the number of tickets sold we are likely to reach our target for the fundraiser to the Domino Orphanage." I was proud of all my hard work.

"Any other questions about the dance Mr. Truesdale?" Sheppard asked sternly.

"Only one." I began.

"Well, what is it, my boy?" Sheppard urged.

"Some of the people in Obelisk were wondering..." (I was wondering.) "If the dates can be taken from others dorms?"

Sheppard frowned in thought. "I better explain more." I thought to myself.

I cleared my throat. "For example having an Obelisk blue girl take a guy from Ra yellow, or perhaps an Obelisk blue guy takes a girl from Slifer red? I blushed thinking of my own situation.

"Also do they have to be in the same year?" I blurted out.

"Hmm well that's never been the case in the previous years," he said scratching his bald head. "You Obelisks tend to only move among yourselves. Zane would it be alright if you could give a few names of these people" he asked.

"They wish to remain anonymous," I replied slightly irritated.

"Please, Zane. It will help me understand the situation better" he begged.

"Fine, I'll give you one. it's Atticus." I lied. "He has been crushing on this Slifer girl big time."

Sheppard chuckled to himself "Mr. Rhodes, you ladies man! Fine Truesdale, you win." he sighed. "Tell the students in your dorm they may take whomever they please to the dance."

"Thank you, Chancellor Sheppard!" I replied gratefully.

"Just no-one from North Academy. OK?" Chancellor Sheppard gave a hearty laugh.

I forced a laugh "Of course." I said bowing, as I left his office.

\- End of flashback

Now that I had backed down the whole meeting seemed pointless. I was the only one I knew who wanted to take a girl from the Slifer dorm.

"Alright, I can do this," I reassured myself, as I began to walk back to her dorm room. I knocked on the door.

"Rebecca?" I called gently into the room. There was no reply.

I then knocked a second time. This time, I heard rustling and shuffling noises inside the room, immediately the door swung open. It was her. She had a pair of sweatpants on now, with her T-shirt.

"Hey Zane," she said, her hair was slightly messy. "What else did you wanna tell me about moving to Ra?"

"Nothing else about that." I replied, "The reason why I really came to see you today was because I was wondering if you'd like to be my date to the Obelisk annual Dance?"

She gave a smile, but then suddenly it disappeared. "Zane, don't you have to take another girl from Obelisk? Isn't this against the rules to take a Slifer?" she questioned. I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

"No, not at all!" I said, attempting to lift her mood. "And besides, I want to go with you." A smile spread on my face just at the thought of it.

Her cheeks blushed, she looked away shyly. "Well if that's the case, I'd love to go with you."

"Great!" I exclaimed. I tried to contain most of my excitement, but I just couldn't. "I'll pick you up from your dorm Friday at 7:00 p.m It starts at 7:30 p.m," I added.

"Alright I'll see you then." she smiled.

Back to Rebecca's point of view

Soon after Zane left I couldn't help but throw my hands in the air and squeal in excitement. "Did the most coveted Zane Truesdale just ask me out?" I questioned myself. I giddily fell back on my bed and began to laugh like a school girl. (Oh wait, that's exactly what I was!) I couldn't wait to tell Amber so I grabbed my phone and began to text her right away.

Then suddenly it hit me. Was what Jaden said all those weeks ago true?

"Two days into Duel Academy and Zane's hung up on you." Jaden's voice echoed in my head.

"I guess I'll have to go that dance to find out," I said.


	6. Chapter 6 - Obelisk annual dance

I anxiously paced up and down the corridors of the Slifer dorms. "This is it!" I told myself. Today's the day of the dance!

Despite Amber still being back in Domino, we still had spent endless hours preparing for this event. Some phone calls even lasting two, three hours those in which we spent time discussing what outfit I was going to wear, scenarios between Zane and I, and much more. Speaking of my outfit Amber was nice enough to send me one of my dresses in the post since I previously didn't pack any formal wear. (Cause honestly I was in my school uniform like 24/7.)

Class went extra slowly today, Jaden didn't show today because he was sick. I shuffled restlessly in my seat as I knew no matter how much Crowler talked about Duel Monsters, nothing would take my mind off the dance. To make the day even better he assigned everyone with a mountain load of homework.

"I want all of this to be finished, and handed to me on Monday," Crowler ordered. "With the exception of my Blue Obelisks, who have a rather important event to attend later today," he added. "They will be allowed an extension if necessary."

"No fair!" Syrus whined. "I could do with one, I have loads of homework from Professor Banners class as well!"

"Maybe I'll be able to get one," I mumbled to myself, unexpectedly Syrus heard me.

"Nice try Rebecca, but we know the only people who get those are the ones going to the dance." he replied frowning at my comment.

He doesn't know... maybe I should keep it this way.

"Oh, I was only joking Sy," I said, playfully punching him in the arm.

"Ok Bec, it's just for a second it was like you thought you were seriously going to the dance." Syrus laughed.

"Haha, no way!" I lied. "No dance for me."

Hours later...

I sighed in relief as I finished doing the last curl in my hair. "This is as good as it's gonna get," I said, looking at myself in the mirror. The red dress I wore contained two delicate thin panels which exposed both of my shoulders, the rest of the dress went in at the waist tightly hugging and complimenting my curves. I completed my outfit with a pair of gold heels.

"Alright wish me luck!" I whispered to Amber, whom which I was skyping at the time.

My wristwatch beeped for 7:00pm. I immediately heard a knock on the door, it was Zane. After quickly readjusting my dress and running my fingers through my hair, I took a deep breath and opened the door.

There he stood, smiling at me.

God, he looked amazing in a suit! The blue tie he wore complimenting his eyes.

"Wow!" he said looking me up and down "You look beautiful."

"Um thank you," I replied shyly. "So do you..." (Oh wait what?. I thought to myself. Nice going brain!)

His eyes widened surprised at my comment. "Thanks," he said, laughing softly. "Shall we get going?"

"Yeah, good idea," I said, closing my dorm room behind me. "Let's go."

Arm in arm, we walked into the night.

Meanwhile...

Alexis Rhodes and her friends stood in a corner of the Obelisk hall.

"WHERE IS HE?" Alexis moaned to her two best friends. "He was meant to be here since he like organised the whole thing!" she complained.

"Don't worry, he will be here soon," Mindy said, glancing at the large hall clock.

"Exactly, when he sees you he is going to rave on how awesome you look in that dress," Jasmine added.

"Gosh, I hope so," Alexis replied. "It is sort of disappointing though when I asked him he said that he already had a date"

"Who is she?" Mindy asked in awe.

"Probably some third-year slut!" Jasmine said angrily.

The three friends cackled in unison.

"Guess we'll just have to wait and see," Alexis said.

It was a fifteen minutes' walk back to the Obelisk dance hall. "We're here," Zane said, as we both entered this large building that looked like a castle.

"Wow, this place is huge!" I exclaimed as I walked in. "Much bigger than any place us Slifers have..."

"Shhhhh..." Zane placed his finger in front of his mouth. "It's best we don't draw too much attention to the different dorm situation."

"Gosh, I hope my red dress doesn't give me away," I said sarcastically.

Zane laughed. "You've got a good sense of humor. Anyway, come on let's go."

 _Chancellor Sheppard stood on the balcony, he glanced down as he saw Zane and his date entering the hall. "I know your secret Truesdale," he said smiling to himself, after taking a sip from his wine glass._

Zane and I were finally standing in the middle of the Obelisk hall. "I'll get us some punch." he offered, walking towards a table in the distance.

As my eyes continued to scan the place, I couldn't help but admire how beautifully the place had been decorated. This place was much better than all of the halls of the other dorms, it made the Slifer dorm look like a joke. Regardless this place was state of the art, with the school's owner being Seto Kaiba that came to no surprise.

"God Amber would love to see this," I exclaimed pulling out my cell phone, taking a few photos.

Unfortunately, my photo taking spree was interrupted, as a figure approached me.

"So what do we have here, a Slifer?" a voice mocked. It was Chazz Princeton.

"Leave me alone." I hissed.

"Aw wat wong?" he said, in a condescending manner as if he were talking to a baby or small child. "Being around all these Obelisks too much for you to handle?"

"No I'm fine, so why don't you just get lost," I replied angrily.

That's when I finally noticed it, the way he was looking at me. His grey eyes struggled to maintain eye contact, as they continued to examine my figure in the dress. They stopped every once in a while at places such my breasts, thighs, and ass, making me feel really uncomfortable. It was like I was nothing more than an object or a piece of meat. "I don't like this." I thought to myself.

"Maybe what they say is true," Chazz said, continuing to taunt me. "You Slifers are no good for dueling, but from the looks of things you may be good for something else," he smirked.

Now he stood closely behind me, I could feel his warm breath on my neck. It sent shivers down my spine. Slowly I felt his palm gently brushing my thigh.

"That's it!" I yelled. I wasn't going to put up with this any longer.

That's when...I saw Zane!

Immediately Chazz pulled away from me.

"Here's your punch," he said, handing a glass full of orange liquid to me. "Sorry I took a while, I got caught in a conversation with one of the professors." he apologized.

"That's ok. You're here now" I said smiling. I sighed in relief. "What perfect timing!" I thought.

Zane then frowned in confusion to see that I was talking to Chazz. "I see you've met my date," he said in a cold tone.

Chazz scowled at Zane. "You're making a mistake Truesdale," he said under his breath, walking away.

"Is everything alright Rebecca?" Zane said concerned, placing both of his hands on my shoulders. He was bending down so that he was at eye level with me.

"Yeah I'm fine," I said slightly, flustered. "Just the same old Obelisks are better then Slifers stuff, nothing else" I assured him.

Zane nodded.

After finishing my punch, Zane grabbed my hand and began to pull me towards the dance floor.

"Come on Rebecca, they don't call this a dance for nothing." he said eagerly, leading me to the dance floor.

"Ok, I'm coming," I replied back. I was a bit stiff and taken aback that he had grabbed my hand. To tell the truth I had never really held hands with a guy before.

When I reached the dance floor, Zane took one of my hands and placed his other on my waist. I shuddered in excitement as the combination of physical contact, his deep blue eyes and the smell of his cologne were enough to drive me crazy. We began to waltz, I followed Zane's lead. Being with him had me in ecstasy, it was everything I had wanted and more. Dancing with him, every step had caused me to drift into my own world. I closed my eyes for a few moments.

After opening my eyes I could see that this peaceful bliss was broken, as I heard whispers, saw stares and frowns cast in my direction from the other obelisk students. I thought it would be best to turn a blind eye and ignore them.

All of a sudden, I saw Alexis walking in our direction.

"Oh shit!" I mumbled to myself. "How am I going to get myself out of this one?"

"Zane, how could you have done this to me?" she screeched. "Out of all the people you could've taken to be your date, you picked her?"

Zane's body pulled away from mine. He then turned to face Alexis.

God the way this girl was carrying on made me want to give her a piece of my mind. There were so many things that I wanted to say to her, but I bit my lip. "I'll let Zane handle this." I thought. Everyone was now looking at all three of us, as she was making a scene.

Zane took a deep breath. "Alexis you need to calm down," he said gently.

"I will not calm down!" Alexis yelled her voice getting louder. "I don't understand why you would want to be with her, I mean come on Zane, she's pathetic and she's a Sli-sli..."

"A Slifer?" Zane finished.

"Yes exactly." she said smugly, now thinking that Zane had caught her drift.

"As was I when I first joined Duel Academy." Zane sighed.

I couldn't help but gasp. What? Wasn't Zane always an Obelisk blue? Here's something I had never heard before.

"But this is different." Alexis protested.

"No, it isn't!" Zane replied now slightly annoyed. "As a Slifer, I still had the same hopes, dreams and passion for dueling as I have today. I strived to be the best and look where I am now. I see that same burning passion and drive in Rebecca, and I know someday she will be a great duelist."

My heart could've melted. I had no idea that Zane believed in me so much.

"But in saying that I'm not here with Rebecca tonight just cause she's a good duelist. It's because I have really come to like..."

"Save it Zane!" she screamed, slapping him hard on the face. Everyone gasped, as she stormed off.

Disappointed at her stupendous behavior, Madame Fontaine grabbed her arm. "Alexis outside now!" The teacher escorted outside the bawling teenager.

After a few minutes of awkward silence and whispers, the fun atmosphere of the dance began to pick up again. Zane and I continued to dance together, enjoying the night and each other's company. When it had reached 11:00 p.m it was time for the speeches.

Zane stood on an elevated platform as he made his speech.

"I hope everyone is having fun tonight," he said. (Everyone cheered at this)

"Firstly I'd like to thank all the Obelisk professors, your constant support in the organisation of this event was amazing. I would also like to thank Chancellor Sheppard as without him, tonight would not have been possible

As for the fundraiser for the Domino Orphanage tonight we have managed to raise an astounding amount of $20,000 dollars!" (Everyone clapped.)

"Anyway that that all I've got to say, enjoy the rest of your night."

He descended from the platform. "Well done!" I said, smiling at him.

"Thanks." he replied.

He then glanced at his watch. "Oh shoot!"

"What is it?" I asked him, quite confused.

"I promised Professor Banner that I would have you back at your dorm by 11:30 p.m."

"Ahaha" I laughed. "Who does he think I am Cinderella?" I joked.

"Very funny Rebecca, but we have to go now"

"Ok," I said, following him out of the building.

Zane and I both arrived back at the Slifer dorms.

"Gosh, that was an eventful night," I exclaimed thinking of all the drama that had gone on.

"Yeah you can say that again." Zane nodded.

"Are you ok, though?" I asked him, gently touching his cheek. There was a small red mark where Alexis had hit him. He slightly flinched. "I'm sorry." I apologized. "This is all my fault."

"No don't say that. I'll be fine." Zane reassured me.

"Thank you for the great night." I said, slightly blushing "I can't remember the last time when I had so much fun."

"Me too." he smiled.

"Well then goodnight," I said, turning around towards my room door.

"Rebecca wait!" he called behind me.

I turned back to face him and that's when it happened. His lips crashed on mine. He kissed me slowly and softly making sure to be as gentle as possible. Suddenly I could feel his tongue touching my bottom lip begging for entrance, I let him in. We both kept on kissing passionately our tongues exploring each other's mouths. Each kiss deeper and intoxicating than the next. Finally, Zane pulled away. "Good night Rebecca." he murmured cradling my head in his hands.

"Goodnight," I said, entering my room.

I touched my lips and smiled. "Zane, he really likes me!" I giggled to myself.


	7. Chapter 7 - Making things official

It was the day after the Obelisk dance...

I woke up early in the morning, despite being able to sleep through the whole night I felt all groggy and my head was throbbing like crazy. Was it possible that someone had spiked the punch last night? Not wanting to wake up I rolled over.

So much had gone down yesterday, and I had barely taken any time to think about it.

Firstly I had been invited to the Obelisk Blue Annual Dance as Zane's date, that's right his date. Secondly, I wasn't too happy to find out that in spite of being a "Slifer slacker" Chazz Princeton thought I might make a good toy. Thirdly, Alexis that crazy bitch pulled a massive hissy fit when she saw me with Zane, this would have clearly ruined the night if I had been anyone else. However being the optimistic person I was, it hardly shook me, as Zane and I both continued to enjoy the night and our time together.

Finally, there was the kiss with Zane, the thing I was confused about the most. I knew that I definitely liked him and the fact that he was the one that initiated the kiss possibly meant that he liked me too. It's just where did things go from here? I have never had a boyfriend, let alone dated before so I wasn't sure. Whatever the outcome I knew that I needed closure, I needed to know what that kiss meant.

After I had woken up, dressed...

"Urghh" I moaned, looking at a criteria sheet which had everything that I had to know for the upcoming mid-semester. "How the hell am I supposed to remember all of this?" I shouted, throwing down the paper and placing my head in my hands.

"Bec, don't be so hard on yourself. I'm sure you'll do fine." Jaden smiled, trying his best to comfort me

"Yeah no worries, if you fail you'll only be expelled!" Syrus added sarcastically.

"God Sy, do you have to be so negative?" Chumley glared at him. "Don't listen to him Rebecca, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

All of us were in the Slifer dining hall having breakfast. The mid-semester examinations were coming up so that was the hot topic among us friends. I was really surprised to find out that all four of us had different attitudes, expectations, and ways of dealing with these upcoming tests.

Jaden was incredibly calm, not caring less if he punked out on the written exam as long as he won his duel.

Syrus was an absolute wreak staying up all night to study and praying to a big Slifer poster his dorm room.

Chumley was down and depressed about the matter, despite putting on a brave in front of me he was definitely breaking on the inside. Jaden had even told me in confidence that if he were to fail his exams again this year, he would be kicked out of Duel Academy for good.

I had mixed feelings about everything. Even though I wasn't so worried about not passing like Syrus, I still had the desire to do well. "At least better than that horrible fifty-two percent," I told myself.

All of a sudden our breakfast conversations were interrupted as Zane casually entered the dining hall. He walked up to the table where we were all seated and sat down right next to me. Jaden and Syrus exchanged a look, but when I saw them they resumed eating their breakfast as normal.

Things were slightly awkward as no-one knew what to say about Zane's presence. I had to admit that being smart, skilled and good-looking did make him seem intimidating at times, but at the end of the day, he was a student and even Sy's older brother. The guy was human, not a god or something.

I looked around the table and saw that everyone had their heads down avoiding even the slightest of eye contact with him. They were eating their food with such a high level of concentration that I wanted to burst out laughing. "How immature." I thought to myself. "Especially you Syrus!"

Zane then decided to break the silence.

"So how's everyone feeling about mid semesters?" he asked. Everyone looked up from their meal and one by one began to speak.

"It'll be sweet, I already know I'm gonna own whoever I duel," Jaden said, with a great amount of confidence in his voice.

"Not licious." Chumley looked down in disappointment "It's going to be one big disaster."

"Arghh help us, Zane!" Syrus shrieked "You must have some big secret to help us all ace these tests."

I remained quiet, knowing that Zane wouldn't appreciate me whining about the upcoming tests as his brother did. It kinda felt weird just sitting next to him right now. I couldn't stop thinking about what happened yesterday and all. I was dying to have a conversation about the events of yesterday, or even just the kiss at least.

Zane turned his head to face me "And what about you Rebecca?" he asked softly. God, looking in his blue eyes made me weak, just as it did at the dance.

"I'm fine, I guess." I shrugged trying to seem calmer than I actually was. "I mean there are still some concepts I don't get from Crowler's class, but honestly can you blame me? The guy spends most of his time making my life a living hell, rather than teaching me." I began to ramble nervously. "And besides nothing I can't handle with some extra revision and maybe a tutor." I gave an uneasy laugh. "You guys think anyone would be keen enough to fly to the island to help me out with some dueling 101?"

"Perhaps I could tutor you?" Zane offered. He had a small smile on his face.

Awww no fair Zane!" Syrus complained. "You don't even offer to help me and I'm your little brother."

Both Jaden and Chumley laughed at this. They then turned their attention back to me, waiting to hear my response to his strange request.

"Alright sounds good," I replied smiling. "So where do we start, the Slifer library?"

"How about my dorm room, at around 11:00 a.m?" he suggested.

"Huh?" I nearly choked on my food. "Um, Zane I don't think that's a good idea. I mean the other Obelisks can't even stand the sight of a Slifer walking by. How do you think they're going to react if I'm like all up in their face and in their dorm and stuff?" I questioned.

Thinking about things, I had actually brought up a pretty valid point, to be considered carefully. It wasn't just the fact that I was from a different dorm that had me worried. It was the fact that I was a girl. I knew that even Professor Banner wasn't too thrilled that I spent late nights in the boy's dorms with Jaden and Syrus telling ghost stories.

"Well for starters" Zane began.

"A - I invited you, so you are welcome as my guest."

"B- It's for educational purposes and..."

"C - He's the school's top duelist and can do whatever he wants." Jaden cut in.

Zane frowned at him but then eased up quickly. Even though it was entirely true it was a hard thing to admit for him.

"Ok, then I'll see you there." he said, getting up from his seat and walking off.

Jaden playful nudged me while Zane was walking away. "She so wants him," he said, teasing me.

"Shut up Jaden!" I hissed, taking a swing at him. Jaden dodged just in time.

Later that day...

I walked up to the huge castle-like building which was known as the boys Obelisks dorms. I saw that the building even had a moat around it. Gosh is this really necessary? I thought to myself. Once I had approached the two large doors at the front of the building I began to slowly knock. I took a deep breath and stood back as the door swung open.

There at the door were two Obelisk guys. One was blue-haired, skinny and pale. He spoke with a southern accent. The other one macho, tanned, with brown hair. He had quite a deep voice.

"What are you doing here Slifer slime?" the southern accent jeered.

"Yeah!" the other one joined in. "Don't yous Slifers have to stay in your own dorm?"

Clearing my throat, I spoke up. "I'm here to see Zane."

They both began to laugh hysterically in unison.

"Do you know how many times, we have to hear that same thing every day." the blue haired boy continued. "On occasion, we do let girls in to see Zane, but since you're just some Slifer I'm sure he wouldn't be interested."

I was just about to leave, when I got the idea that I wasn't going to get anywhere from this conversation when suddenly I heard a harsh voice...

"That's enough!" Zane yelled fiercely.

Both of the boys looked nervously behind them as they could see Zane approaching, and boy he didn't look too happy.

"B-but Zane." the brunette stammered.

"But nothing!" he growled. "She's my guest, I invited her here, so why don't you show her some respect? If there're any problems regarding her presence please speak now." he narrowed his eyes in anticipation for a response.

"T-there's no p-problem." they both gulped. They then stood aside allowing you passage into the dorm.

"Good," he replied with a nod. "Come on, my rooms this way." he gestured.

I began to follow Zane's lead up a flight of stairs. As I was walking around the building I couldn't help but notice all the dirty looks shot at me from the other Obelisk students. At first, it did make me feel slightly uncomfortable but then after a while I had grown used to it. To make things easier I decided to focus on a single spot on Zane's back as he walked. That way I didn't have to endure the unpleasant looks aimed at me by all of those Obelisk snobs.

After walking for a good five minutes we finally reached Zane's dorm room. Reaching into his blazer pocket and pulling out a key card, he swiped it in a card reader. It then beeped and flashed green as a symbol of approval and the door clicked open. Wow, how fancy! I thought to myself, thinking of the struggles I had to open my dorm room with my bent keys and rusty lock. It was actually laughable just comparing the two dorms and the reality was that I was truly slumming it as a Slifer.

As I entered his room I gazed around in astonishment. It was huge and it had everything! Located on the left-hand side of the room was a doubled bed, next to that a large study desk, the room even had an en-suite bathroom. Everything was amazing, however, the thing that perplexed me the most was that the whole room was spotless, not one speck of dust or dirt to be seen anywhere. How can a teenage boy be so neat? I asked myself. Don't tell me that all of the Obelisks get maid service as well? I was dumbfounded. No wonder it is such an achievement to move up the dorms, this dorm is fit enough for a celebrity.

I followed Zane over to the desk and sat down. Opening up all of my dueling texts and a notebook, looking up at him I asked. "Shall we start?"

"Yes." he replied.

Fast forward an hour...

"That's right." Zane nodded, as once again I had replied yet again with the third correct answer.

"I never wanna look at another textbook again!" I groaned whilst rubbing my temples.

"Same here." he agreed.

Suddenly his hand rested on top of mine sending an electrical shock throughout my whole body. My eyes looked up to meet his, shivering when his beautiful blue eyes locked onto my brown ones. I was hypnotised. He then leant in, his lips pressing on mine. It felt just as magical as it did the first time, I closed my eyes and kissed him back. I never wanted this moment to end when suddenly it crossed my mind. "I've got to ask him, what this means and where we stand."

I abruptly pulled away from him.

He was taken aback, I could tell this by the confused expression on his face. I could also see he was quite hurt by my actions.

"Rebecca is there something wrong?" he asked concerned.

"Yes... I mean no" I had never done anything like this before so I had no idea what to say.

"Alright," Zane said straightening up, his expression now quite serious. "Start from the beginning."

Ok here goes. I told myself.

"I just wanted to ask you something." I began. "When you kissed me after the dance. When you kissed me just now. What does it all mean?" I spoke slowly, thinking carefully of how I worded everything.

"I mean I really like you, and not just because you're some hot shot duelist, or because tonnes of other girls want to date you. It's because I like you for you. Look I'm not asking anything big like for you to stand on the balcony and shout to the world that I'm your girlfriend. I'm not big not titles. I just wanna know where we stand and what I mean to you. To be honest I've never had a boyfriend, let alone dated so I don't know how this whole thing works."

There was a slight pause, I guessed that he was thinking of the right thing to say,

"Rebecca I am flattered by your affections, and I want to let you know that I do feel the same way. It started on the very first day that you began at the Academy, or to be exact the entrance exam. I don't know what it was, but something draws me to you. I've dated before but never felt anything like this. When I invited you to the Obelisk Dance, I wanted to know what I felt for you was real and not just infatuation, but after spending time with you that day I realised it was real. I liked you and I wanted to be with you, and deep down I hoped you felt the same. Now I am glad to know that you do."

"So does this mean that we're together?" I asked, my heart beat getting faster and faster

Zane smiled at my terminology. "Yes, we're together."

I smiled as in a matter of seconds his lips were back on mine again.

I was lost in the kiss, his lips were so soft. Then his lips began to stray from mine where they travelled to my neck where he began to graze it and peck it tenderly. I moaned softly and tilted my head to one side. Being kissed this way was something that Amber and I had talked about, but just imagining it was nothing compared to the real thing. I could definitely tell he knew what he was doing. He was a third year after all.

Unexpectedly there was a knock on the door. We both pulled away from each other startled.

"Who is it?" Zane called out.

"Chancellor Sheppard." the voice bellowed back.

"Oh, shiiii."

"Shhhh..." Zane hushed me, placing his hand lightly over my mouth. He led me towards his wardrobe. "You can stay here till he's gone," he said in an almost silent whisper.

"Ok," I mumbled, quickly stepping inside.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"Of course," Zane said in his politest voice, as he opened the door.

"Hello Zane, how have you been keeping?"

"Good Chancellor Sheppard," he replied. "Is there anything that you would like to address with me?"

"Actually yes, Mr. Truesdale," he said nodding in agreement. "It was brought to my attention by some of the other students, that there were girls sneaking into the boy's dorms. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this would you?"

Zane frowned in confusion (or at least he pretended to) "No, I haven't heard anything about that. Did they happen to give you any more information about this?" he tried to remain serious, trying to avoid drawing attention to anything that would suggest I was there.

"Yes, actually they did. They said that they saw a girl from the Slifer dorm come here today." Just after he spoke, a small pair of red boots (my red boots) caught Zane's eye. When I had entered Zane's room I had taken them off and placed them in front of his bed, to make myself more comfortable. Zane knew that Chancellor Sheppard was too ditsy to notice it so while he was distracted he quickly kicked them under the bed.

"Oh did they now?" he continued to play dumb. Zane scowled thinking of the nark who had dobbed him in, thinking how he would make them pay after Sheppard left.

Sheppard walked further into the room, scanning every detail of it. "You aren't hiding anything from me Zane?" he asked with slight suspicion in his voice.

"No nothing at all Chancellor." he replied sternly.

I wanted to laugh at all the efforts he was going through to conceal the fact that I was here. Imagine how people would talk if the big guy on campus was caught with a first year Slifer in his room. For some reason, I struggled to see the seriousness of the situation and thought it was quite funny actually.

Now from inside of Zane's wardrobe, I could see Chancellor Sheppard's shadow. I bit my lip nervously as I knew how weird things could get if he found me in Zane's room, or to be exact his wardrobe. I held my breath and attempted to remain as still as possible until he moved away at least.

Zane leapt towards the wardrobe defensively. "I'll be sure to let you know if I find anything," he told Chancellor Sheppard trying his best to end the conversation.

Unfortunately, the air generated by his movements caused a large amount of pollen to enter the wardrobe. Suddenly my nose felt itchy. I tried my best to hold it in but I couldn't. I loudly sneezed. "Achoo!"

Chancellor Sheppard was about to leave until he heard the loud noise. Zane froze, he was extremely worried about what was going to come next. If I was found in Zane's wardrobe I would be in trouble. Big time!

"Coming down with a cold Truesdale?" Sheppard chuckled.

I sighed in relief. Phew, that was a close one. I thought to myself.

Zane in realising what happened he decided to go along with it. "Yes I think so," he said rubbing his nose and blowing into a tissue.

"Well we can't have Duel Academy's golden boy all sick, now can we? Rest up son, we'll have this conversation another time." he gave a sincere smile.

"Thank you, Chancellor Sheppard," Zane said bowing as he left.

Zane then closed the door and counted softly "One, two, three" to make sure that the coast was clear. I heard footsteps approaching me. He then opened the wardrobe "It's ok, you can come out now." he said quietly.

I exhaled all the air that I had been holding in and climbed out. "I think I should be going now, you know just in case he comes back," I said, giving a small wink. "If only I can first find my shoes!" I said, looking around the room frantically.

Zane bent down and pulled my shoes out from under the bed. "I had to hide them," he said, handing them to me.

"Thanks," I replied putting them on. I headed for his room door when he suddenly stopped me.

"Rebecca, I don't think that's such a good idea," he warned. "Didn't you hear what Chancellor Sheppard said before?"

I gave a big sigh. "I guess you're right," I said walking back into the room. Instead, I started heading towards his balcony. "Is this better?" I poked my tongue out playfully.

"I'm sorry." he apologized. "Just be careful when you are climbing down that tree."

"Don't worry about me, I used to climb plenty of trees in my childhood. I should like be an expert by now." I said, giving him a thumbs up.

He laughed at my enthusiasm and planted a kiss on my lips. "This was fun, maybe we should do this more often?" he suggested smiling.

"Yeah. It was nice." I said, smiling back.

After climbing down the tree, I headed back to my dorm feeling on top of the world.

Zane's point of view

I sighed sitting down on my bed. That Rebecca really is something I thought, smiling to myself.

Thinking back to the first day that I started at Duel Academy two years ago, I couldn't believe how things had changed and my current situation now.

I had fallen for a girl, and yes she was beautiful, kind and talented but that didn't change the fact that she was a first year and a Slifer. Her being in the red dorm didn't really matter to me as after seeing the way that she and Jaden dueled proved that dueling talent wasn't determined by the color of the blazer they wore.

Did she make me happy? Of course, she did. All the guys seemed to have noticed a change in me ever since I met her. Apparently, I was more carefree and less uptight? I was sure that it was a good thing.

No, none of the above had me worried at all. The matter that was eating away at me was the reality that she was only fifteen and I was seventeen. Two years wasn't that much in an age gap, however, I have heard of cases where youth and inexperience had caused complications in a relationship. Even though what I had with her is new, I didn't want anything to come between us.

Shaking my head and telling myself that I was over thinking things again, I made my way down to the dining hall for lunch.


	8. Chapter 8 - Framed by Crowler?

I sat down at my desk with all of my textbooks open. "Spell cards this, trap cards that," I muttered to myself. I would have to be pretty confident with all of these terms if I ever wanted to move up to Ra Yellow. Zane had said before that I had great potential, now was the best time to prove it. Despite reading through the Finer strategy and tactics Chapter about 50 times, there were still some things that I couldn't get.

All of a sudden, I saw a white envelope slip under the door. "Hello, anyone there?" I called out hoping to get a response from the sender. Sadly there was no answer.  
Reluctant to move from my studies I got up from my desk and walked towards the door. I opened it and stepped out, scanning the environment around me. I could see no-one there.

"That's odd," I whispered to myself, picking up the envelope it was addressed to me. I tore open the envelope and began to read.

Rebecca,  
I have found some information that I'd like to share with you about the missing students from the abandoned dorm.  
Meet me outside the boys blue dorms at 8:00pm.  
Please come as this is really urgent.  
Love Zane.

"Huh? This is a bit weird." I thought to myself. The six remaining students who were still missing from the abandoned dorm had been gone for quite a while now. "Why would something come out only now?" I wondered. Could this possibly have anything to do with the Shadow Riders that had been running around the academy?

"I better go to find out," I said, putting on a jacket as I left my room.

It was a long way the boys Obelisk dorms, as I had to even row across a lake to get over there. After much difficult work paddling, I finally reached the Obelisk blue gates. "Finally!" I exclaimed, stepping off the boat and as I began to walk through the gates.

 _"Ahahahaha" Crowler cackled behind a bush "That fake letter was my most ingenious plan yet. Once and for all I will be able to get that big mouthed Slifer slacker expelled." he continued. "As soon as Rebecca enters the boys dorms seeking Zane, I will snap a picture of her and show it to Chancellor Sheppard." he rubbed his hand together. "It will seem like she planned to sneak into the boy's dorms during their shower times."_

 _He heard footsteps "Oooooh!" he cried out in excitement, as he sprung into position to take a photo. Due to his clumsiness and lack of coordination Crowler tripped causing him to bump into a very confused Atticus._

"Dr. Crowler, what are you doing here?" Atticus questioned suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing!" Crowler bluffed. "As you were boys."

"I don't think so..." said another one enraged. "Why is Dr. Crowler creeping around the guy's shower rooms with a camera?"

A whole group of boys gasped.

"T-this is a mistake boys." Crowler stuttered.

"Now that's just sick!" said a red head.

"Get him!" called the first guy.

Crowler screamed and ran off, as he was being chased by a mob of very angry Obelisk boys.

I walked beyond the blue gates, I would hear a large amount of chatter coming from the building. Probably best if I lay low till I can find Zane, I told myself. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw him.  
Zane!

Zane was wearing nothing but his swimmer trunks, I blushed as I began to look at his nice muscular body. "Damn he was so fit!" I began to advance towards the direction in which I saw Zane. Hearing a snarky voice behind me, I stopped dead in my tracks. "Oh no, this means trouble, I mumbled.

I whipped my head around to see non-other but Chazz.

"So she's come back for more?" he jeered.

But before I could even think of anything, Chazz began to yell at the top of his lungs. "Guys we've got a Slifer here!"

I hit him. "Shut up you jerk, or I'll..." I began to threaten him.

"Or you'll what?" he teased. "Send Jaden on me," he said laughing. "Do you know that trespassing in dorms after hours is against Academy rules?"

I didn't know what to say, the seriousness of the situation at hand had placed me under a great deal of shock.

"Well it is," he said, answering his own question. "Also" he continued. "Do you happen to know the punishment for the student found trespassing? Well do you?" he said, his voice louder this time.

"Um, I don't know, I muttered.

"EXPULSION!" he exclaimed, his eyes widening. "What a shame" he sneered. "Such a waste of talent."

"I can't b-be expelled!" I stammered.

All my memories of Duel Academy flashed through my head, kicking Alexis' ass at the entrance exam, the laughter of my friends - Jaden and Syrus, and even my first kiss with Zane. If I was expelled from Duel Academy, I knew I would have to say goodbye to all the places that I had made these memories. Also, all the people I had made them with.

Tears began to form in my eyes. "Please don't turn me in,"I begged. "I'll do anything"

"Did I hear that you'll do anything?" he repeated, looking quite smug.

"Yes," I answered. "I'll do all your homework, I'll clean your dorm room and even carry all your books to class."

He then got a piece of loose hair and moved it back from my face. "So naive," he whispered. "That's not what I had in mind." His grin becoming wider. His grey eyes were hungry, eager...

Suddenly he grabbed me. Holding me roughly by my hair he pulled my face towards his. I wanted to scream for help, but that's when his lips muffled mine. He kissed me roughly, his tongue darting wildly in my mouth. Then I felt one of his hands move slowly up from my waist to cup my left breast.

I was gasping for air, but I couldn't breathe.

Unexpectedly a harsh force ripped us apart. I could feel the oxygen flooding back into my system.

"What the fuck?" yelled a furious Zane. Right now he had Chazz pinned up against the building wall, one hand holding him by his shirt and the other one clasped around his neck. Zane's blue eyes flashed dangerously as he demanded answers from the teen billionaire. His grip around his neck was so tight Chazz began to splutter and cough unable to breathe, let alone speak.

"What did you do to her Princeton?" he said through gritted teeth. "Well answer me!"

"Zane please stop!" I pleaded. Even though Chazz was an asshole I didn't want to see anyone get hurt. "Let him go!"

Zane was too consumed in anger, ignoring my desperate cries he pushed Chazz's body harder against the wall. I could hear some cracking sounds which made me feel sick to my stomach.

Atticus then approached the scene as he had over heard the many curses and threats of his good pal. He tried his best to calm him down and diffuse the situation. "Let him go, man. He's not worth it" he advised.

Sighing loudly, Zane released his grip on Chazz causing him to fall to the ground lifeless. He was gasping for air, breathing heavily trying to regain his breath. When he finally found the strength to stand, he snarled at Zane "It's not over Truesdale, mark my words you'll be sorry!"

Zane and Atticus both rushed to my aid "Rebecca are you alright?"

Very phased by what had just happened I felt my knees beneath becoming extremely weak, everything around me was spinning. Suddenly it all went dark...


	9. Chapter 9 - What did I do?

I woke up in the infirmary. The bright fluorescent lights nearly blinding me.

"Bec you're alright!" Jaden and Syrus exclaimed, standing over my bed.

"Where am I?" I asked, sounding a bit groggy.

"You're in the infirmary." I heard Zane speak. He walked over to my bed. "Rebecca, don't you remember anything that happened last night?"

I took a second to think about it.  
Suddenly everything flashed before my eyes, the note from Zane, paddling to the dorm, Chazz grabbing me forcefully and Zane practically strangling him. I winced and shut my eyes tightly, wishing that I didn't remember what happened yesterday.

"I guess she does," Syrus commented. "What did happen yesterday Zane?"

"That's none of your business!" Zane suddenly snapped. "Don't you two have to get to class anyway?"

"Nope," Jaden said in quite a cheerful tone. "Dr. Crowler's class is canceled today. Apparently, he has some important meeting with Chancellor Sheppard."

"Rumors are that Dr. Crowler was caught sneaking around the boy's Obelisk dorms with a camera. While it was showering times!" Syrus added.

"Ewwww..." I said, finally tuning into the conversation,

Madame Fontaine then moved into the room.

"Rebecca how are you feeling?" she said, placing a wet towel on my head.

"I'm feeling a little better. Thanks" I replied weakly.

"Boys." she glanced towards Jaden, Syrus, and Zane . "I think it would be best if you gave Rebecca some time to rest and recover. I've heard she's had quite an eventful day yesterday," she said walking off.

Zane glanced at his watch. "I better get going. I have to get to class." He then bent down and gave me a small kiss on the forehead before leaving.

"Whaaa?" Jaden and Syrus exclaimed, their jaws dropping in shock.

I giggled at their reaction, "I'll explain later." I said poking out my tongue cheekily, whilst waving them goodbye.

Once I was given the all clear from the nurse, I decided to get some fresh air. "What better place to go then my favorite spot?" I said to myself, sitting down on the pier near the lighthouse.

"I knew I'd find you here." I heard Zane's voice behind me. He then sat beside me and stared out towards the ocean. "I was meaning to talk to you before, but I didn't get a chance."

"Does Madame Fontaine, does she know what happened?" I asked.

"No," Zane answered. "To her knowledge, you were jogging and tripped over, you hit your head on a rock and became unconscious. Atticus and I said we found you passed out, so we decided to bring you to the infirmary. I couldn't tell her what really happened, cause then you would be in trouble for being in the boy's dorms in the first place. Why were you there anyway?" he asked, looking me straight in the eyes.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the note. I handed it to Zane and he began to read it.

"Rebecca," he said, looking away from the letter and back to me. "This isn't even my handwriting."

"Wow Zane, that would be so easy to figure out with us having all of our classes together," I said, sarcastically.

"Sorry I didn't think about that," he said, going slightly red in embarrassment. "Just for future reference writing notes aren't really my thing, if I needed to talk to you I would've come and seen you in person."

"Ok, I'll think about that," I said, smiling and looking up at him.

We then sat there in silence, I decided to snuggle closer to him resting my head on his shoulder. The both of us just sat there, watching the sunlight hit the water, the waves crashing by and enjoying each others company.

That night.

I was back at the Slifer dorms, Jaden and Sy's room to be precise. Tuesdays were movie nights, which meant that I was always stuck in the middle constant dispute between the three boys over deciding what movie you were going to watch.

"Aww, but I wanted to watch that one!" Jaden grumbled.

"Jaden we watched a horror movie last week. We should watch something different this time. Like maybe an action movie?" Syrus suggested.

"Guys you're being completely selfish!" Chumley said furrowing his brow. "Let Bec choose this time. So what are we watching Bec? he turned to face me. A chick flick?"

"Urgh." both Jaden and Syrus pulled a face.

I laughed. "No it's fine, we don't have to watch a chick flick. I know you guys aren't too keen on seeing that mushy, lovey-dovey stuff."

The boys sighed in relief.

"Speaking of lovey-dovey" Jaden began. "You said that you were going to tell us what's going on between you and Zane."

"Oh, that!" I said blushing, as all three of them gathered around to hear the news. "Sometimes I think this would be a lot easier with female friends," I told myself.

"Yeah, were my eyes playing tricks on me or did my brother actually kiss you?" Syrus asked ruffling his hair confused.

"It's true" I nodded. "Zane and I are together."

"Since when?" Chumley interrupted. he was eager to know everything.

"Since the dance. After Zane walked me back to the dorm he kinda kissed me. I don't know how it happened, but it just did." I explained.

"Woah!" they all gasped, finding it very hard to come to terms everything I just told them.

"Wait, you went to the dance?" Syrus asked. "With my brother?"

"Weren't you listening to what she was saying this whole time Sy?" Jaden chuckled.

"Yeah, " Chumley joined in.

Out of the blue, Syrus went into a foul mood. His eyes flashed angrily as he slammed a DVD case on the table.

"Actually guys, I don't feel like watching a movie anymore," Syrus said furiously, as he walked out the door. He slammed it behind him.

"Wait up Syrus!" Chumley yelled, opening the door and chasing after him.

"What's wrong with Syrus?" I asked, puzzled at his strange behavior.

"He's upset," Jaden replied. "And I think I know why."


	10. Chapter 10 - Mid semester tests

I had started my mid-semester written test in Professor Banner's class, which had the duration of an hour. All of the students in the first year dorms were there, you name it - Slifer, Ra, and Obelisk. All those extra study sessions with Zane had been a big help as not only had I mastered the art of kissing, but I had also learned a lot of things that were helping me breeze through the test right now. I smiled to myself, as I confidently answered all of the multiple choice questions. Even though I was acing the test, there was one thing that worried me. I wondered where was Jaden? All the other Slifers I knew were here, however, I couldn't see a sign of him anywhere.

"You have 45 minutes left in which to finish your test" Professor Banner informed the class.

I could hear Syrus mumbling to himself which made me giggle a bit, but my heart sank when I remembered that he was still giving me the silent treatment since Tuesday. I had tried asking both Jaden and Chumley if they knew what was up, however, both boys had shut me down saying that they didn't want to violate the bro-code. "That's what I get for only making guy friends." I thought shaking my head.

Syrus continued to mumble. "Which counters a field spell, which counters a..."

"I didn't know this was an oral exam Syrus? Or maybe next time sleep would be better than an all night Slifer seance." My head shot up to see Jaden, he was late and he didn't seem to care one bit.

"You're here!" Syrus cried out.

There was a loud thud coming from one of the tables behind. I turned around to see Chazz.

"You two wanna keep it down, some of us plan to pass this test." he said, looking quite agitated.

"Hey I always plan on passing, it just doesn't always work out that way." he said, sounding pretty laid back.

Professor Banner looked up and frowned when he saw Jaden was disrupting the class. "Oh Jaden!" he called. "Why don't you come down here and get your exam?"

Jaden gave a nervous laugh as he saw all the glares he was given from the Obelisk students around him. "Be there in a jiff!"

It had me mind boggled how Jaden could be so relaxed in a test as serious as this. From what I had heard from other students if failure could possibly result in expulsion. Even though he was a good duelist it, I found it slightly irritating that he didn't take anything seriously.

The full hour had finally passed, the test was over! I smiled as I handed back my test to Professor Banner. Since I had been able to finish on time I assumed that I had done well. Looking back up at the desks I saw Jaden and Syrus sleeping away back to back. Chumley shook them both gently to wake them up. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight. How typical of them.

Once both boys had woken we all headed down to the dueling arenas. Jaden, Chumley and I walked side by side. Syrus lagged behind hoping to avoid talking to me I hoped and prayed that I wouldn't have to duel any of my friends in Slifer, especially Sy as that would only make things more awkward between us.

Entering the dueling arena my eyes scanned the room around me. "I wonder who I will be dueling?" I questioned out loud. Suddenly I heard a voice, it was one I despised very much.

"Well if it isn't the number one Slifer Slacker?" No surprise, it was Crowler.

Immediately I shot him a cold stare. He returned me with a look of his own, one that intended to mock me.

"I stand corrected." he laughed, as he saw Jaden walking towards me.

I gritted my teeth angrily. "Long haired freak!" I muttered under my breath.

Seeing how easily Crowler was getting to me, Jaden spoke up. "Forget him Bec, let's just stay positive and focus on our duel."

"Right." I nodded. "I'm going to find out who I'm dueling," I told him walking into the distance.

"Hold it there Slacker!" Crowler ordered.

"What do you want?" I snapped turning around to face him. I didn't care about manners, after all, why would I when he treats me like garbage.

"Ahhh Rebecca." he continued. "Since you think that you are hot stuff with dueling and all..."

"I never said that" I cut in.

Crowler chuckled, ignoring what I had to say. "I think you will quite like the duelist that I have arranged for you. After all, we can't have a pro like you having it too easy, now can we?" he mocked.  
"For your field test, you will be dueling..."

"The one, the only, the Chazz!"

I shuddered. This was probably the only thing that could happen that was worse than dueling my friends. Glancing back at Jaden and Chumley they both looked just as horrified as I was.

"Hello darlin, long time no see." he smirked.

"Wait, I really have to duel him!?" I questioned Crowler.

"Rebecca you don't have to do this. It's a miss match" Chumley called out.

Maybe he's right. The field test required me to duel another Slifer, so why were I the only one who had to face an Obelisk?

"Where's Chancellor Sheppard?" I asked in quite a forceful tone. "I'd like to speak to him about this."

"Oh, he's over there!" Crowler said, pointing towards the arena seats.

To my amazement there I saw Chancellor Sheppard seated with a huge grin on his face. "Go Rebecca!" he cheered, waving a red flag that had my name on it. "This will be a very entertaining duel, good match up Crowler," he said giving a thumbs up.

I face palmed myself. "Could this get any more embarrassing?"

Crowler seemed to enjoy how uncomfortable I were with this whole thing and started to laugh uncontrollably. All at once I had a sinking feeling in my gut. It seemed I didn't have any other options, I was going to have to duel him.

"Looks like I won't be moving up to Ra Yellow anytime soon." I sighed .

"You got that right" Chazz sneered, activating his duel disk.

"Duel!" we both yelled in unison.

"Why don't we make the stakes higher?" he asked, his gray eyes widening.

"Let me guess, you want to duel with a card-anti?" I said.

I was quite familiar with this concept as back home as almost everyone I dueled wanted to get their hands on my Blue Eyes White Dragon. How could I blame them? After all, there were only four in the whole world, and everyone thought they could score an easy win against a teenage girl instead of challenging Kaiba.

"Not exactly." Chazz scoffed. "How about something better? I win and you're all mine!" he exclaimed. His tongue running over his lower lip.

"Well you won't win, ya got it," I said, drawing my first few cards.

Life point count:  
Rebecca - 4000  
Chazz - 4000

"Ladies first." he jeered.

"I draw!" I began. I summon my Red Eyes Black Chick in defense mode. I also play two cards face down and end my turn.

"Is that all my little Slifer?" he continued to ridicule me. "I play my V-Tiger Jet in attack mode. I then play the card - Card exchange. This allows me to take any one of my opponents cards, in exchange for one of mine."

He looked so smug as he walked across the arena up to me. "Well show me your cards!" he demanded. Breathing out heavily, I showed him my cards. "Hmmm so many choices," he said in a sing-song voice, whilst looking at my cards. Finally, he decided. "I'll take this one," he said giving a smirk and taking my - Cost down card. "Now you pick," he said, showing me his hand of cards. I chose the card - Call of the Haunted. I also play one card face-down and end my turn.

"My turn!" I called out drawing my next card. "I sacrifice my Red Eyes Black Chick in order to summon my supreme Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

"Yes!" Chancellor Sheppard cheered.

"No!" Dr. Crowler moaned, placing his head in his hands.

"Red Eyes Black Dragon" I continued. "Attack his V-Tiger Jet with Inferno fireblast!"

"Ha, it' s cute how you're so predictable," he smirked. "But then again what would I expect from a Slifer? I activate my face-down card - Negate attack. Let me put it into simple terms for you. Your. Attack. Is. Negated."

"I draw," Chazz said picking up a card. "I use the card - Cost Down to bring forth the monster - W-wing Catapult, I then use the card - Polymerization fusing the two together to create the VW-Tiger Catapult. I also play the trap - Dragon capture jar."

"No!" I exclaimed as my Red Eyes was sucked into a large jar.

"Your dragon is mine!" he yelled. "I now summon the Dragon Piper."

My Red Eyes emerged from the jar, rising to give me a ferocious glare. He was under Chazz's control now.

"Red Eyes Black Dragon and VW- Tiger Catapult, attack her directly." he commanded.

First, the Red Eyes attacked me, then when it came to the second monster I activated my face down.

"Hold on Chazz!" I said confidently. "I activate the card - Emergency Provisions, by sacrificing one of my face-down cards I am allowed to add 1000 life points to my total before you attack. Both attacks hit me and now I was barely holding on with very few life points.

Life point count:  
Rebecca - 600  
Chazz - 4000

"Yes, Chazz defeat this slacker!" Crowler said, clapping his hands together.

"Aw, what a shame you can't duel as well as you can kiss," Chazz smirked.

"Wait, what's he talking about?" Jaden questioned, furrowing his brow in confusion.

 _That day Zane and I hadn't told Jaden what happened and now it was coming back to bite me._

"Ahaha these teenagers move around fast." Chancellor Sheppard chuckled, nudging Madame Fontaine. I assumed by this comment that he had previously seen me with Zane and now probably thought that I had moved on to Chazz.

"Man I have a lot of explaining to do if I don't want to be known as the school skank," I mumbled to myself.

It was now my turn again.  
"I call upon my Luster dragon and I equip him with the spell card - Metal morph, this raises both his attack and defense points by 300. Luster Dragon attack his VW-Tiger Catapult."

Life point count -  
Rebecca - 600  
Chazz - 3800

"My turn!" Chazz sneered, drawing a card. "By the looks of things, this duel is nearly over!"

"Don't count on it!" I exclaimed. Even though I was able to summon a stronger monster, it still didn't have as many attack points as his Red Eyes. Luckily I had a face down which I was counting on.

"Red Eyes attack her Luster Dragon, Inferno fireblast!"

"You've activated my trap - Mirror gate! Thanks for the card Jaden" I smiled turning around to face him. He smiled back giving me a thumbs up.

"Arrrgh what?" Chazz cried. He clearly was not expecting this to happen.

Immediately both of our monsters switched place in battle. I had my Red Eyes back. With one blast it defeated my Luster dragon which was on his side of the field.

Life point count -  
Rebecca - 600  
Chazz - 3600

It was my turn again,  
"I equip my Red Eyes with the magic card - Dragon nails, which increases its attack points to a powerful 3000. Now my dragon attack Chazz directly."  
His life points dropped drastically by 3000, now equal to mine.

"Having fun?" I teased him, just as he had been doing to me the whole duel.

"Sure, I'll be having lots of fun when I win this duel!" he snarled. "I now use the card - Fusion gate. This card lets me summon a fusion monster without having to use Polymerization. Come on out XYZ Dragon Cannon. I then use the card - Grave robber which lets me bring back any card back from the graveyard which has been used during this duel. I think I will bring back your metal morph and use it on my Dragon Cannon."

He began to laugh crazily. "You've lost this duel. XYZ-Dragon Cannon attack!"

My Red Eyes disappeared.

Life point count -  
Rebecca - 500  
Chazz - 600

"Great, I'm in a tight spot again," I told myself. One more attack and it could all be over.

Then I remembered the advice that Jaden had told me earlier. "Bec, it's not over till the last card is drawn." his voice rang in my head.

"Maybe he's right," I said softly, as I began drawing a card. My faith had rewarded me.

"I play the card - Swords of revealing light. This card stops your monsters from attacking for three whole turns."

"You're just delaying the inevitable." he spat. "There's nothing I can do, so I pass this turn."

"I draw," I said confidently. " I play the card - Mining for magical gems. This allows me to take one spell card from the graveyard and bring it straight to my hand. I bring back - Cost down and use it to summon my Dark witch in attack mode. I then sacrifice her to summon my Blue eyes. Lastly, I play the card - De-spell which I use to remove the effects of metal morph from your monster."

Chazz's face turned extremely white. He knew what was going to happen next.

"Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack him directly!"

"Arghh no!" he screamed, as his life points dropped to zero.

"Tight duel!" Jaden exclaimed giving me a high-five.

"Thanks." Jaden." I replied.

"Congratulations Rebecca!" Chancellor Sheppard spoke. "Not only did you give us a good duel, but proved that you are worthy to move up to Ra Yellow!"

Everyone in the arena began to cheer and clap. I had been able to defy all odds against me and defeat an Obelisk. That was something to be greatly admired.

I left the arena feeling ecstatic. "I can't wait to move into my new dorm," I said smiling. "Even if yellow isn't really my color."

Arriving back at my room, I began to pack up my things. I was ready to move on to bigger and better places.


	11. Chapter 11 - He doesn't belong here

"Where does this go?" Jaden asked, picking up a cardboard box.

"Against the back wall," I instructed him.

"And this?" Zane questioned, holding a lamp higher so that it was in my view.

"By my bed," I answered.

It had been a week since my promotion to Ra Yellow and all of my friends were helping me move into my new room. I was glad to have help from Jaden, Chumley, Zane and Atticus as moving dorms was harder work than I had expected. So I didn't mind the boys lending me a bit of extra muscle power.

"So where's my runt of a brother?" Zane asked coldly. "Isn't he part of this little friendship group?"

I sighed looking down. Telling Zane that I was going through a rough patch with his brother would just be super awkward, so I felt it was best if I didn't bring it up.

"Well, you see Zane..." Jaden began.

Oh, shut up Jaden! I thought to myself, placing my head in my hands.

As mean as it was it had to be done. I walked over next to Jaden and dropped a heavy book directly on his foot. Since he was only wearing his socks, he yelped quite loudly and hopped from foot to foot in agony.

Zane frowned at the fact that his question was being ignored, however Chumley quickly stepped in to save the day. "He had to um see about some stuff," he added. "And besides Sy isn't any good at lifting and stuff."

"Just as Syrus isn't any good at dueling." Zane laughed to himself.

"You don't have to be so mean!" Jaden said, defending his absent friend.

"The truth is my brother doesn't belong here," Zane said bitterly, crossing his arms.

"Take that back!" Jaden yelled. He and Zane were now face to face glaring at each other. Zane towered over Jaden attempting to intimidate him, but Jaden was too stubborn and wouldn't back down.

"Guys break it up!" I said, standing between them. "Now's not the time and if we keep going at this rate I'll never finish arranging my room."

They both sighed, backed away and continued to move the things in my room. In an hours time, the whole place was finished. Everyone then headed down to their separate dining halls for lunch.

At the Ra dining hall, I was amazed at the large selection of delicious food available for me to choose. With all due respect, Professor Banner was a good cook. However, this food wasn't just good. This food was great!  
After loading my plate as high as a mountain, I searched for a place to sit down and eat.

"I guess since I'm new to this dorm, I should try and make some new friends." I thought. "Now the question is where to sit?" I pondered.

At one table I saw a guy eating his food all by himself, then that's when I remembered. He's the guy from the entrance exam! My thoughts then drifted back to that day, thinking of how Jaden and I were both impressed by the way he dueled from the moment we saw him. He had very cleverly used the card - Ring of destruction to clinch the match.

I walked over to the table where he was seated and sat down.

He looked up from his meal, a small element of surprise in his facial expression. "Can I help you?" he politely asked.

I didn't really know how to answer his question, but I interpreted it as if he didn't want me sitting there.

"I'm sorry." I apologized. "Is this seat taken?"

"No, it's fine," he answered. He then resumed eating his meal.

"You're Bastian Misawa right?" I questioned, extending my hand to shake his.

"And you must be Rebecca Anderson, yes?" he asked back, mirroring my movements with his opposite hand. "Nice to meet you!"

"Yeah," I replied smiling. "Wait, how do you know about me?"

"Everybody does." he nodded. "You're the Slifer who has taken out two Obelisks and trust me things like that get around fast. I believe you're known as the Slifer prodigy."

"Haha!" I laughed. "Do people really say that?"

"Yes." He gave a half smile.

"Well Bastian, you're quite good yourself." I complemented.

"Why thank you." he replied blushing slightly.

"So tell me what's your secret?" I continued.

"Calculations and Formulas of course!" he said proudly. "I use equations and algorithms to solve the problem that is my dueling opponent.

"Great." I gave him a thumbs up. "Do you have one for me?" I giggled.

"Not yet, but it is something I am currently working on," he said. "Oh and by the way, welcome to Ra Yellow," he smiled standing up, then began to walk away.

After lunch.  
I saw that there was a missed call from Jaden on my cell phone about an hour ago. Trying to call him back I got no answer, so I decided to send him a text.

I typed in the message. - **Hey Jaden,what's up?**

He replied almost immediately. - **Hi Bec, meet me down by the water. It's important.**

I quickly put my phone back in my pocket and began to race towards the spot where Jaden was. He was standing there by the water, the waves crashing by.

"Jaden!" I called, as I ran up to him. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to worry about Syrus," Jaden said, looking quite serious.

"Me too, I mean he hasn't spoken to me since..."

"I'm not talking about that." Jaden cut in. "Sy is having some serious confidence issues, and it's all thanks to that boyfriend of yours."

"Zane?" I asked quite puzzled.

Jaden nodded. "Sy and I were having a practice duel for our tag team match, he didn't even put up a proper fight. He was really excited when he drew this one card during our duel, but he never ended up playing it. I asked him why and he told me that his brother said he wasn't good enough to use it. Even though they say he is as good as his reputation, it doesn't sound like he's very good to his little brother. I mean you heard what he said earlier?"

My thoughts drifted away from what Jaden was saying.

This situation was too familiar to me, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. Just like Syrus I was the younger sibling, but the difference was to my older sister - Megan. She was a top pro-duelist blessed with skills and smarts that I somehow missed out on. Selling out every arena match finishing off her opponents in two or three turns. Everyone had a sense of profound respect for her, but I was just living in her shadow.

Her voice rang in my head, the words cutting like knives "You're not a good duelist Rebecca and you never will be. It's such a shame that such a powerful card as the Blue Eyes White Dragon is stuck in a deck with such a worthless amateur. You'll never make it to the pro leagues because it's not where you belong."

I shook my head, quickly beginning to blink away the tears that were forming in my eyes. She was long gone from my life now. I hadn't seen her in a whole three years (except sometimes I saw her on TV, but never in person) Attempting to make myself feel better I acknowledged the fact that I had improved quite a bit in my dueling since those years. I would prove her wrong. Regardless I had to forget her as she wasn't an important part of my life anymore, Amber was my sister now and she proved that blood wasn't thicker than water. She was always there for me and I would always be there for her.

Jaden tilted his head to one side, looking at me quite confused. "Bec are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine. I've just got something in my eye that's all." I quickly tried to change the subject and put the focus back on Syrus and away from myself. "It's best not to pry Jaden." I gently advised. "I mean its none of our business."

"Well it is my business if what he's saying is upsetting my bud Sy." he protested. "I'm going to duel Zane and find out what's up."

"Jaden be careful," I warned.

"I gotta do this for Sy and besides I wanna see how I stack up," he said smiling. "Zane I'm coming for you!" he called, thrusting his fist into the air.

Once Jaden made up his mind there was nothing I could do to change it.

"Good luck!" I said, supporting my determined friend.

After that, Jaden stepped down from the rock and turned to face me. "You know Bec, that same goes for you," he said, his voice more gentle. "I mean if you had some brother or sister saying that you weren't good enough, I'd be pretty mad too."

 _I sighed. "If only he knew." I thought. "If only he knew."_


	12. Chapter 12 - Running away

Jaden and I sat down at the desks in the School's Administration Office.

"I can't believe this Zane guy, I mean no wonder Syrus has zero confidence. If my big bro told me that I wasn't good enough to use some card, I'd be insecure too. Well, that's all about to change!" Jaden said, clicking his pen and starting to write.

"How did I get caught up in this mess?" I asked myself. For some strange reason, it was me and only me, who got tied up in strange situations such as these.  
There I was sitting next to one of my best friends organising a duel against my own boyfriend, in order to help fix the confidence issues of my other friend whom also happened to be my boyfriend's brother.  
"God and I thought girls were complicated." I sighed, resting my head on one hand.

"Is Zane spelt with two N's" Jaden questioned. He was filling out a duel request form and he wanted to make sure that he had all the correct information.

"Just one," I answered, watching Jaden rapidly scribble text on the piece of paper.

"These duel request forms are such a drag!" Jaden grumbled, finally writing his signature on the bottom line.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr Crowler walk past. That could only mean one thing... trouble!

"Duel request form?" Crowler repeated with a confused look on his face. Reaching down he snatched the form right out of Jaden's hands.

"HEY!" we both yelled in unison.

"Planning a duel are we?" he mocked. "Against whom?" Crowler's eyes widened in astonishment. "You must be joking!"

"No, actually I'm not," Jaden replied, reaching for the form. "I'm taking Zane on to help Syrus get over his confidence problem, so he'll be ready for our upcoming tag team match."

"Ah yes, of course, the big tag team match," he said. "The one where if you lose you'll both be expelled from the Academy am I right?"

I frowned seeing his chirpy attitude at the thought of Jaden and Syrus being expelled.

"You say dueling Zane will help you prepare?" he questioned. "Well that's a shame" he jeered, waving the paper in front of your faces. "Because there will be no duel!"  
He laughed manically as he tore the paper to shreds in front of your very eyes and walked off.

Jaden and I gasped. What else did we expect from that jerk?

 _Later that day..._

"I have an idea Jaden, what about a pickup duel?" I suggested. "I mean filling out some stupid duel request form isn't the only way to have a duel."

"Bec you're right," Jaden said, a smile spreading across his face. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

Suddenly he began to sprint off at full speed.

"Jaden!" I called after him. "Where are you going?"

"To the Obelisk Blue dorms," he yelled, not stopping.

I sighed and began to run after him. I knew that the students there were ruthless and cruel and it would be best if we had strength in numbers.

 _At the Obelisk blue dorms._

Two snobby Obelisk guys stood at the entrance of the dorm.

"Well well, what do we have here?" one of them smirked. "Some Slifers?"

"Get your eyes checked!" I scowled, pointing to my yellow blazer.

"Oh well what do you know?" the other one joined in "Yellow is the new red." they both began to laugh uncontrollably.

I could see the anger building up in Jaden. He didn't like when people put down his friends. Loyalty was something that Jaden was best known for.  
"That's it!" he said, angrily storming up to them.

"Jaden no!" I yelled, but it was too late.

In a matter of seconds, Jaden was roughly shoved to the ground. I gasped as I saw he had taken a pretty hard fall.

"What's your problem!?" Jaden exclaimed.

"I ain't got no problem, but you sure will if you don't beat. it" the first guy sneered.

"Yeah, Zane wouldn't waste his time with you. You're still probably wet behind the ears from pre-duel school." the second guy continued.

"I am not!" Jaden argued, gritting his teeth.

All at once I heard a splash. To my horror, I glanced over to see a soaking wet Jaden standing next to me. "You jerks!" I yelled.

"Now you are." they teased walking off.

"We're gonna duel," Jaden muttered to himself.

Out of the blue, a strange idea popped into my head.  
"I got it!" I exclaimed, running off into the distance, just as Jaden had done before.

"Bec what are you doing?" he called out behind me.

"You'll thank me later," I yelled back, nearly out of breath.

It wasn't far to the spot, but finally, I reached it. The outside of Zane's dorm room. I took a deep breath as I began to climb up the nearby tree onto the balcony. When I was finally at the top, I carefully unhooked the clasp on the glass door, it opened.

There he was angelic as ever, with his face down in immense concentration. He was seated at his desk, three or four of his textbooks opened in front of him. By the looks of things, he was studying. No doubt he would be getting yet another perfect score on his upcoming test.  
He heard my footsteps and his head shot up immediately.

"Rebecca, what are you doing here?" he questioned gently, slightly furrowing his brow.

"I came here to see you," I said smiling.

The tension in his face suddenly lifted as he returned my smile with one of his own. He walked up to me slowly and gave me a small peck on the lips.

"I'm so happy to see you," he said, his blue eyes sparkling. Unexpectedly he pulled me into a warm hug, also starting to gently stroke my hair.

"Me too," I replied, gazing up at him.

He then walked over to his bed and sat down. He patted the spot next to him urging me to take a seat.

"I've been meaning to talk to you." he said, now more seriously.

"Oh no!" I thought. "I hope everything's ok between us?" I asked him.

"Sure everything's fine." he said, taking my hand and bringing it up to kiss it.

"It's about Atticus. He's gone missing" he said.

"Since when?" I asked shocked. Hearing this news really upset me, as even though I despised Alexis he was a very good friend of mine. He wasn't some stupid snobby elitist like all the other Obelisks.

"Since the day, he helped you move into the Ra dorms. He told me he was going for a walk with some other students that night and never returned" he answered. "I know you and Alexis don't exactly see eye to eye." he continued. "But I want you to take into consideration, that she's going through a rough time with her brother missing and all."

I nodded. "I understand Zane. Anyway speaking of brothers, I've noticed that yours is feeling a little down lately."

"Oh is he now?" Zane replied coldly.

"Yeah." I continued. "Jaden asked him why and your name came up and not in a good way."

"The big bad brother," he smirked. "What, did you come here to scold me?" Zane questioned, his eyes narrowing.

"No Zane, I came here to tell you Jaden wants to duel you," I answered, slightly defensive.

Zane snorted in response.

Suddenly my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. Glancing at it, I saw that Jaden was calling.  
I answered the call. "Hello"

"BECYOUGOTTACOMETOTHESLIFERDORMSTHERESABIGEMERGENCY" he rambled.

"Wait Jaden slow down, I can't understand a word you are saying," I said.

I then heard the phone was grabbed off Jaden.

"Hi Rebecca, it's Chumley." A calm collected voice spoke through the receiver. "We need you to come over to the Slifer dorms, it's an emergency."

"That's better." I thought, as now I were able to understand what was going on. "I'll be there soon," I replied hanging up.

I glanced back up at Zane. He had been watching me the whole time.

"Trouble in paradise?" Zane questioned, raising his eyebrow.

"You don't know the half of it," I said sighing. "I'm sorry, I gotta go," I said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. I then rushed out the door and began to climb down the tree.

 _Fast forward 10 minutes._

I burst into Jaden's dorm room panting. "Guys what's up?" I asked, quite out of breath.

"See for yourself," Chumley said, handing me a small piece of scrunched up paper. Unfolding it I saw that it was a note written from Syrus.

The note read as follows -

 _Dear Jaden,  
I'm leaving Duel Academy. Don't try and stop me, it's for the best.  
I would only be holding you back if I stayed.  
Syrus._

"Sy's not going anywhere," Jaden said crossly.

"We've gotta stop him," I added.

"Yeah after dinner," Chumley said.

"No now!" Jaden and I frowned at him.

"Alright now." Chumley agreed, rushing over to the door.

All of us rushed out the door, following Jaden's lead. "Hurry!" he yelled.

 _We need to find him soon, I thought. Before it's too late._


	13. Chapter 13 - Do it for Syrus

Knowing that we didn't have a moment to lose Jaden, Chumley and I raced off into the woods in the hope of finding our runaway friend Syrus.

"Syrus!" Jaden called out.

"Sy, it's grilled cheese day," Chumley said, hoping this would lure him out.

"Where are you Syrus?" I yelled, running around. My eyes scanning every square inch of the environment in the hope that I would see my friend.

"We miss you Sy!" Chumley shouted, he was running and very much out of breath.

Suddenly, we spotted him. He was down by the water, having even made a raft out of tree logs and a long branch for a paddle.

"Stay back Jaden." he warned, we all began to advance towards him.

Seeing that Jaden had almost caught up to him, Syrus nervously climbed onto the raft and attempted to travel further and further into the ocean. Luckily Jaden leapt onto the raft and stopped it, but they both ended up losing their balance and fell into the water. The raft breaking apart, both boys fully drenched.

"Help I can't swim!" Syrus shrieked, splashing around frantically. He was reaching out to grab Jaden.

"And you were going to raft out into the ocean? That makes sense!" Jaden exclaimed, as he struggled to stay afloat, as Syrus was pushing him under water.

"I'm coming!" Chumley yelled, doing a cannonball into the ocean. You frowned in confusion, that seconds later he was standing up. "Um, guys it's shallow."

I laughed and began to walk towards the soaking wet trio. Jaden and Syrus coughing and spluttering trying to get air back into their lungs.

"Why are you trying to stop me Jaden? I stink, please just let me go. They'll assign you a new tag partner and you'll have a much better shot at winning the match." he said, sadness in his voice.

"Sy that's your brother talking," he assured him. "Come on pal you gotta believe in yourself."

"You gotta believe me." Syrus cut in. "I'm a lost cause!"

"He's right you know." said a deep voice.

"Huh?" we all exclaimed.

Looking up I saw no-one else but Zane. He was standing there on an elevated rock, his arms crossed and his face not showing one sign of warmth or affection. "You dropping out?" he questioned in a monotonous tone.

"Well yeah, kind of," Syrus replied timidly.

"Well it's about time." he smirked.

"Zane." I pleaded. His gaze remained towards the ground, avoiding eye contact with me.

Sy's face drooped. Moving back to the scattered logs he began to pull them back together. He then started to sob.

"You're his big brother!" Jaden yelled through gritted teeth. "How can you say that?"

"Because I know it." came Zane's answer.

"Yeah I bet you think you know it all but guess what? You don't. And I'm gonna prove it right here, right now. Let's duel!" Jaden said, shaking angrily.

"No Jaden!" Syrus turned back to face him.

"Duel a Slifer, sure why not?" he shrugged. "After all its been a while since I went slumming."

"Then get your game on!" Jaden said balling his fist.

 ** _The duel between Jaden Yuki and Zane Truesdale - Refer to Dubbed Yu-gi-oh GX: Episode 8 to know how the duel went._**

 _Time skip - To the end of the duel_

Jaden's life points dropped to zero

"Jaden nooo!" Syrus called out, running towards him.

Surprisingly a small smile appeared on Jaden's face. "Thanks for a great duel Zane," he said.

Zane gave a small smile back. "You've made good friends Syrus."

Syrus nodded.

"And I'll see you around," he said looking at me. He then began to walk away.

"Your brothers got mad skills!" Jaden complimented.

"Well, at least I got the looks," Syrus replied. We all laughed at this.

"Oh, and by the way Rebecca," Syrus said, looking up at me with guilt in his eyes. "I'm sorry, sorry about everything! Sorry about being a bad friend, sorry about ignoring you, sorry about..."

"It's ok Sy." I said, stopping him "I forgive you."

"Really?" he asked, his eyes glimmering happily.

"Really!" I repeated. "I do have one question, though." I continued. "Why were you mad at me in the first place?"

"Oh," Syrus said, sounding downbeat. "It's just that I thought when you started dating my brother, you didn't want to be friends with me anymore."

"Why would you think that?" I asked, pretty confused.

"Well, I thought that since he thinks I'm a loser, once you started hanging around with him you would think that too. I was also scared that you would choose him over me like everyone does. When he asked you to the dance, I thought that was the day that you would drift apart from us as friends. Jealousy took over me, so I thought if I didn't care about you anymore I wouldn't be upset when you stopped talking to me." A single tear rolled down his cheek.

I then hugged him, squeezing him tight. Even though my intentions were good, I could see how uncomfortable this was making him so I let go.

I pulled away and looked at him. His cheeks were now bright red and he was slightly flustered. Thinking of something else I could do, I reached out my hand for a shake.

"Friends again?" I said smiling.

"Yeah friends." he said, shaking my hand.

"Awww isn't this cute." Jaden teased.

"Shut up Jaden!" we both yelled, chasing him down the beach. Chumley followed Jaden, Syrus and me, struggling to keep up with us.

I was glad. Finally, the gang was back together!


	14. Chapter 14 - Back to Domino City

After a long semester of both studying and dueling, it was finally time to rest and relax. It was Winter Break.

Almost everyone in the Academy decided to fly back to Domino for the break, except for a few minority who decided to spend it there. It had taken much convincing to get Jaden to leave the island and come back to Domino, he wasn't too keen on going back because his parents were rarely at home due to their busy work schedule. This made me feel terrible and as I was no stranger to loneliness, I felt sorry for him and offered him accommodation at my place. As for both the Truesdale brothers, they were going back home too as they had big Christmas celebrations with their family. Unfortunately, Chumley wasn't coming with us this time. He didn't tell the gang exactly why, but we assumed that it had something to do with his dad's Hot Sauce business.

Zane and I sat next to each other on the plane ride to Domino. We were both eager to get back home, away from all the chaos and madness that went on at Duel academy. Not only did going back to Domino mean that we were able to get away from Crowler's class (which was just about as entertaining as watching paint dry), but it meant that Zane and I could go on actual dates like other teenagers. When I say actual dates, I mean proper ones. Ones that didn't involve sneaking into my boyfriends dorm by climbing up a tree near his balcony, at the high risk of being expelled if I was caught (it even more awkward when I had to regularly ask Miss Dorothy to help me get out splinters afterwards) To put it more simply - No rules, no regulations, no restrictions from the Academy. Nothing. Just two teens who like each other hanging out, without being judged if one of them wore the color red or yellow and the other blue.

"Zane I can't believe the first semester is already over!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, time sure does go fast." he agreed.

"And you know what's even scarier." I continued. "Before you know it you will be graduating!"

"Don't say that." he said looking out the window, deep in thought.

"Awww what's wrong Zane?" I teased. "Not ready to hold your own in the big scary world?"

"No, it's just that I'm going to miss you Rebecca." he said, giving me a faint smile.

"I'm gonna miss you too," I replied, looking up at him. "But you will visit me right?" I questioned, hoping for a certain answer.

"Yes of course. You won't be able to keep me away." he chuckled softly. "Anyway regardless of that we should focus on the here and now," he said squeezing my hand.

"Yeah, I agree," I said, smiling back at him. I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, hoping to get some sleep before we landed.

After many long hours, the plane began to descend. I was woken up by the announcement from the flight captain.

"Good morning ladies and gents, welcome back to Domino City. On the behalf of myself and the flight crew, we hope you enjoy your stay here. We also wish you a happy and safe Christmas."

"We're here," Zane said, moving a few loose strands of hair away from my face.

Sitting upright, I looked around and saw all the passengers around me. There was lots of chatter among them as many were excited to go home and be reunited with their family for the festive season. Suddenly I heard loud laughter among the chatter, the source of it coming from the seats across mine. Peering to my left-hand side I saw Jaden and Syrus doubling over and laughing. What could be so funny? I thought to myself, not understanding their joke. I then noticed that the corner of my lip was wet. "Just great!" I mumbled , realizing that I had been drooling while I was asleep.

Zane then leaned forward glancing at his hysterical brother and friend. he then returned his gaze to look at me. After a few seconds of observation, he made a face.

"What?" I asked him, not understanding why he made that expression.

He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. Just like a parent would have done for a child, he began to wipe the corner of my mouth cleaning away all the saliva there. Moving back his eyes began to scan me. When he saw he had gotten all of it a smile spread on his face. He seemed pretty impressed with himself.

My cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. "I could've done that myself," I told him.

"I know." he said, slightly smirking.

Even though I wasn't too pleased that my boyfriend had seen me like that, I was sort of happy with his responding actions. For some strange reason, I liked being babied by him. I didn't know exactly why, but I thought maybe it had something to do with me missing out with my parents and sister. It felt nice to be looked after for once.

When we had all landed, we exited the plane together and headed off to collect our luggage. Once everyone had their bags, phone calls were made to arrangements for pick up plans. Zane and Syrus were to be picked up by their parents and Jaden and I had called for a taxi. I couldn't wait to introduce Jaden to Amber. "She's gonna love him!" I thought.

"Big Bro, can't Bec and Jaden come home with us?" Syrus questioned. He prayed that Zane's answer to this would be yes, as even though he had Zane as a brother it was practically the same as being an only child. Why you ask? Because on an everyday basis, Sy felt like he was ignored by his brother about ninety-five percent of the time. He considered Jaden more of a brother in comparison to him.

Zane shook his head. "No Sy, because we would've had to let mom and dad know in advance."

"Oh." he said, looking down in disappointment.

"Don't worry Sy," Zane said, placing his hand on Syrus' shoulder. "I'll ask mom and dad's permission if Jaden can come over tomorrow."

"Thanks, Zane," Syrus said, giving a small smile.

In ten minutes time, their parents had arrived to pick them up.

"Alright mom, we'll be there soon," Zane said, hanging up his cell phone.

"We're leaving guys," Syrus said. "Goodbye, Bec. Goodbye, Jay."

"Bye!" Jaden and I called. As the brothers walked into the distance.

Surprisingly Zane rushed back in our direction.

"What's wrong Zane?" I asked him. "Did you forget something?"

"Yeah." he replied "This."

Putting his arms around me, he lifted me up and pulled me into a kiss. At first, the kiss was small, but then it grew bigger and more intense. A deep warmth spread throughout my body, his lips were soft and sweet. I lost all train of thought as his fingers began to run through my hair. This was just too perfect...

"Ahem!" Jaden said loudly, causing us both to pull apart.

Zane cleared his throat. "I'll call you later," he said, following Syrus with the luggage.

"That reminds me Jaden." I gasped. "Our taxi is waiting."

"Oh right!" he said, as we both ran for the Taxi.

 **~Time skip~**

Finally, Jaden and I had arrived at my apartment. Turning my key in the lock I opened the door. In a flash of quick movements, Amber ran up to me and gave me a big hug. She was in her Starbucks uniform, so I assumed that she had just gotten back from work.

"Bec!" she screamed. "I've missed you so much." She was squeezing me so tight, that I could barely breathe. She then moved back to look at me, her eyes glassy with tears.

"I missed you too Amber," I replied back, also starting to get emotional at the reunion.

After roughly wiping away the tears with her sleeve, she gazed over to see the brunette standing next to me. "And this must be Jaden," she said grinning widely.

Jaden held out his hand "Jaden Yuki." he said, starting to shake her hand.

"Amber Stone." was her reply.

She then bent her head out of the doorway and was slightly disappointed that the introductions were finished.

"Wheres the boyfriend?" she questioned.

"He had to see about some stuff," I answered, laughing at her eagerness to meet him. "Anyway Jaden, please come in!"

As Jaden looked around the apartment, he was in awe. "Woah, Sweet pad you got here Bec!"

"Thanks," I replied giggling.

"Bec why don't you go and freshen up?" Amber suggested. "In the meantime, I can give Jaden a tour of the place."

"Good idea," I said, heading to the bathroom.

 _Fast forward 20 minutes._

Once I had finished showering, drying my hair and changing into clean clothes I headed for the kitchen. I was absolutely starving as on the flight back to Domino I had refused to eat any of the plane food. The reason - because it so gross! Walking into the kitchen I found Amber, she was making a sandwich.

"Amber, you're meant to be taking care of our guest!" I exclaimed, seeing as she was here and Jaden was somewhere else in the apartment.

"Already done." she replied with a smile.

She then led me to the TV room. There Jaden was seated on the couch with a game controller in his hand, he was rapidly pressing buttons and cursing everyone is a while.

"Die Motherfucker!" he yelled at the screen, which followed by a long series of gunshots.

He was so engrossed in the game that he didn't even notice Amber and me.

"See I told you!" she said rolling her eyes. "I know the way to a boys heart, it's through video games."

We both shared a laugh and walked back to the kitchen.

After sitting down at one of the kitchen stools, Amber pushed a plate with the sandwich towards me.

"You must be hungry. Eat" she said.

After thanking her I began to eat, I scoffed the food down as if I hadn't eaten in months.

"Oh, by the way, Amber," I said, with a mouth full of food.

"Yeah, Bec."

"To be honest, I thought the kitchen would be the first place to find Jaden," I said, thinking about how back at Duel Academy he would always have seconds, sometimes thirds.

"He already had one." she replied.

"Ok."

"Times three." she giggled.

"I knew it!" I yelled, standing up. "According to Syrus they were thinking about installing a garbage disposal for the food, but Jaden solved that problem."

Unexpectedly my cell phone began to ring, I quickly picked it up and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Is that?" Amber asked, quite excited .

"Yes." I nodded. Placing a finger in front of my mouth, indicating that she should stay quiet. I put my phone on loudspeaker so she could hear him.

"Hi Rebecca." he said.

Amber mouthed "Wow" probably because, like me, she thought his deep voice was sexy.

"Hey, Zane," I said, coolly.

"I was thinking we should do something tonight, if you're free that is" he continued.

"Yeah sure I'm free tonight," I replied, doing a little skip.

"I know this good restaurant near Domino pier. How about we go out to dinner?"

"Sounds great!" I said, rubbing my hands together and grinning evilly at Amber.

"Ok. So I'll pick you up at 7:00pm from your place?" he asked.

"Yep," I responded. "I can't wait!"

"Me too," he replied. "Ok, I'll see you then."

"Bye!" we both said, hanging up the phone.

I did a twirl in happiness, and then Amber burst out into a scream running up to hug me again.

"This is so exciting!" she yelled. "My little girl is growing up."

"Um, Amber I'm two months older than you, remember?" I crossed my arms looking at her.

"So what?" she tossed her hands into the air. "You've got a date and that means we've got a lot of preparation to do."

"Like what?" I questioned.

"Like deciding your outfit, your hair, and makeup..."

"Ok, I get it!" I yelled, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her excitedly.

"There's not a moment to lose!" she yelled.

We both scurried towards my wardrobe all hyper and excited. Sure we were a few hours early but never mind. Tonight was going to be a big night for me and I wanted to make sure that everything ran smoothly.

 _ **Meanwhile at the Princeton Mansion**_

Chazz sat down on his bed flicking through his duel monsters cards. "If I use this card in combination with this card..." he mumbled to himself. "I should be able to beat Jaden for sure." He smiled to himself, he couldn't wait to get his revenge on Jaden for beating him at a duel and this perfect strategy would help him do it "Jaden you're toast!" he said, starting to laugh, however, he was interrupted by a knock on the door

"Who is it?" he snapped. Chazz didn't like people entering his room unless it was an absolute emergency, but sometimes he was more lenient towards his house maid who of course did all his dirty work.

The room door burst open and standing in the doorway were his two older brothers.

"Slade! Jagger!" he exclaimed. "What do you want?"

"Two words Chazz, World Domination," Slade said, looking quite smug.

"That's right." Jagger continued, "All you have to do is follow your role in our plan. The world can be our's brother."

"Jagger and I already rule the financial and political worlds, play your cards right and you can rule the dueling world," Slade said.

"He means that quite literally." Jagger chuckled. "Just imagine Chazz." he continued. "Being able to have everything you want, everything you desire. This privilege is only known to the world's most powerful men."

"Well, I don't have everything I really want," Chazz said, looking down sulkily.

"You ungrateful little shit!" Slade yelled, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "Aren't you happy with the chopper that mom and dad bought you for your sixteenth birthday?"

"The...choppers...fine" he managed to spit out three words.

"Let him go, Slade," Jagger ordered.

"Then explain yourself," Slade demanded, releasing his grip on Chazz.

"It's just, I don't have her." he sighed, falling back flat on the bed.

They both looked at him, with a great amount of confusion on their faces. It was an odd sight to see Chazz Princeton acting like a goofy, love-sick teenager.

"Long black hair, perfectly tanned skin, luscious long eyelashes, nice ass..." he murmured to himself. His cheeks flushed red at his last comment.

"Who is she?" Jagger questioned. He was unfamiliar with the physical description given by his brother.

"See for yourselves," Chazz said, opening the girl's Facebook profile on his phone, and handing it to them allowing them to get a closer look.

The picture was taken at a beach in Florida. There she was in a red bikini standing next to a surfboard wearing a big smile on her face. Her black hair fell in loose waves down her back, her skin a nice honey bronze. By seeing her both brothers now understood what Chazz was talking about. She was very beautiful.

Suddenly Slade had an idea. He grinned widely and whispered something to Jagger, his brother returned his smile with one of his own.

"So you really want her that bad huh?" Jagger asked, already knowing the answer to his question.

"No shit!" Chazz replied, sounding quite irritated. "Weren't you listening to me the whole time?"

"We were Chazz," Slade said smiling. "We can get you what you want but first, we have to make a deal."

"I'm listening!" Chazz said, sitting up in an attentive manner.

"It's quite simple actually." Jagger carried on. "You just do your part in the plan and she's all yours."

Slade then left his brother's bedroom and stepped outside the mansion. He dialed a number, the phone rang twice before someone picked up.

"Slade." a dark voice spoke. "Its been quite a while."

"Yes, it has," he replied back. "Listen, there's something that I need you to do for me."

"Glad to be at your service Mr. Princeton." the mysterious individual answered.

"I need you to find me some information on someone." Slade continued. "Her name is Rebecca Anderson."


	15. Chapter 15 - Date night

After two long hours of dressing, I was finally ready. Since the weather was a bit colder now that it was the winter season I decided to wear something that was both warm, but stylish. Looking in the mirror I admired the outfit that I had chosen which consisted of a grey, knitted roll neck dress that I wore with black tights and black ankle boots. To add a bit of color to my look I stained my lips a bright red.

"How do I look?" I questioned Amber, turning around to face her.

"Absolutely hot!" she replied, giving a wink. "He won't be able to take his eyes off you."

"Haha, I hope so." I laughed. "I have an idea, why don't I ask Jaden what he thinks. After all, it will be good to get an opinion from a guys point of view."

"Sure!" Amber nodded. "Check the TV room, I think he's there still playing video games."

I then left my bedroom and began walking to the TV room. I could still hear the noises blaring from the Television. "Gosh, I don't know how Jaden can manage to play video games for five hours straight." I thought to myself. I poked my head into the room door, and I was quite surprised by what I saw.

There he was fast asleep on the couch, the game controller still in his hand. He was snoring loudly and on occasion, sleep talking.

"Go Flame Wingman, attack Chazz directly!" he mumbled.

This made me giggle. Dueling was Jaden's one true passion and if he wasn't dueling, he was dreaming about it. Covering him with a throw rug I went back to my bedroom.

"So what did he say?" Amber said, anxious about Jaden reply.

"He's fast asleep, so nothing."

"Never mind," she said, smiling at me. "I think you look amazing so he should too."

"Thanks, Amber," I said.

Suddenly I heard the doorbell ring.

"That's him!" I said, doing a silly little dance.

"Can I get it, please?" she begged.

"Fine." I sighed, giving into her. "Just don't embarrass me ok?"

She ran over to the door and opened it.

"Hey!" she greeted him.

"I'm sorry I think I have the wrong address," he said slightly flustered. I guessed that he was expecting me to open the door.

"No you don't, your princess is here!" she said, grabbing me and pulling me into the doorway.

I blushed when I saw him, he looked so different out of uniform. He was dressed casually, but nicely. He wore black jeans with a grey long sleeve shirt which he had a dark blue jacket over the top.

Amber nudged me as she could see that I was going into a daydream by just looking at him. "Bec." she whispered. "Aren't you gonna introduce me?"

"Oh right!" I said, finally snapping back into reality. "Zane this is Amber my best friend. Amber this is Zane my..."

"Nice to meet you." Amber grabbed his hand, shaking it in quite an enthusiastic manner. "Bec's told me so much about you!" she said winking.

"Oh great!" I thought. Let the embarrassment begin.

"Nice to meet you Amber." he said, politely shaking her hand.

"Hey I remember you." she continued. You're that guy on the Duel Academy advertisement right?"

"Yes I am." he said, quite serious.

"So you're a student at Duel Academy right?"

"I'm in my third year." he replied.

"Ok cool."

"Why do you ask?" he said, with slight suspicion in his voice.

"Oh it's just because I heard from some sources that you were only a model or actor, posing for Duel Academy to make them look better." she coughed, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Who told you that?" he said, narrowing his eyes.

"Oh I don't know, I heard it around." she said, not so subtly poking her tongue out at me.

"I'm gonna kill her when I get back." I thought to myself.

Zane then glanced at his watch "Shall we get going Rebecca? I booked our dinner reservation for 7:30 p.m"

"Yes." I nodded.

Zane and I both left hand in hand.

 _Fast forward..._

We both arrived at the restaurant and from the looks of things it was quite a fancy one. The place he had chosen was called Luigi's an Italian restaurant. I was quite happy about this as I loved Italian food.  
Zane told me to follow him as he led me to the reception.

"A reservation for two under the name Zane Truesdale," he told a plump lady at the computer. She smiled and nodded, typing something in.

A waiter then approached us.

"Sir, madam, right this way." the waiter said, leading us both to a table with two seats and a lit candle in the center.

Like a true gentleman, he pulled my seat out for me. After I sat down he took a seat himself.

"Can I start you off with any drinks?" the waiter asked.

"Just water." he replied.

He then handed us both a menu each. "What would you like to order?" he continued.

"I'll have the risotto," Zane said.

"And I'll have the spinach and ricotta cannoli," I said, handing the menu back to him.

"Sure, it won't be long." he said walking off into the distance.

Once the waiter was gone we turned our attention back to each other.

"Zane you didn't have to do all this for me," I said, feeling bad that he had gone through so much trouble to organise this.

"It was nothing, I just wanted us to do something special," he said, placing his hand over mine. "You have to admit our date options are pretty limited on Duel Academy Island."

"Tell me about it," I said laughing.

Looking over I saw that the waiter had both our meals, after placing them down in front of Zane and me, he busily hurried off to the next table.

"So." I continued, putting a piece of cannoli in my mouth. "Got anything special planned for Christmas?"

"About that." he said, "My parents really would like to meet you."

"Oh really?" I answered, feeling quite surprised at his last statement.

 _I wonder what he has told them about me, I thought, feeling slightly nervous._

"Yes," he said, giving a small smile. "So I was wondering if you would like to spend Christmas with us?"

"Awww Zane, of course, I'd love too" I replied, smiling back at him. "You give me the time and place, I'll be there."

"Do you have to ask your parents permission first?" he questioned, looking a bit taken aback that I had already agreed, before talking to them.

"They're really cool about that stuff." I lied. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

 _I wanted to kick myself for lying to him. The actual matter of fact was that my own parents had abandoned me. They left me helpless, alone and unloved. How I hated them for what they did. No matter, what I knew I would never forgive them. To tell the truth, at times I did miss them at times. It was really hard for me when the other kids at the academy brought up their parents in conversation. Even more so seeing others buying gifts for both mother's and father's day. At the age of ten, I met Amber, just like me she was all alone as her parents died when she was four years old. She had escaped from an orphanage in Domino as there she experienced a great deal of mental and physical abuse. Seeing as we both had so much in common, we vowed to stick by each other no matter what. It was the least we could do because no-one else would._

"Ok great," he said. "Here's my home address," he said writing it on one of the serviettes at the table.

"Thanks," I said, putting it into my handbag. "So what time do you want me to be there?"

"Around mid-day. We'll be having a Christmas lunch," he smiled.

"Ok. See you then," I replied.

After we both finished eating dinner, we decided to go for a romantic walk along the Domino pier. It was so magical seeing all the lights along the water and watching the many ferries and ships sail in and out. Today's weather was actually quite cold, however,that only made things better as I was able to hold Zane's warm hands and cuddle up close to him.

 _Time skip._

Now we were both back at my apartment. We had gotten back quite late so I assumed that everyone was sleeping.

"Thanks for taking me out tonight. I had a good time." I said, smiling at Zane.

"No worries. It was my pleasure," he replied, smiling back at me.

I gave a big yawn.

"You must be tired," Zane said, laughing softly. "I better get going."

I simply nodded in response.

"Goodnight!" he said, bending down and giving me a kiss.

"Goodnight," I said, turning my key in the lock to open the door.

When I walked into my apartment, the whole place was in darkness. Flicking on the light switch I illuminated my surroundings. I tip-toed to the kitchen trying to keep as quiet as possible. as I didn't want to wake anyone. Suddenly I heard lots of clanking noises coming from the kitchen. froze. Oh god. I hope there aren't any intruders. I thought to myself. Just to be safe, I grabbed a saucepan that was left on the dining room table and slowly began to advance towards the kitchen.

There in the kitchen was a dark figure. From the looks of things it seemed that they were helping themselves to the food in our fridge.

"Gotcha!" I yelled, switching on the light and swinging the saucepan towards the intruder.

"Arghh!" Jaden screamed, jumping out of the way.

"Oh, it's just you," I said, sighing in relief.

"Are you crazy?" Jaden exclaimed, "You could've like killed me!"

"Sorry Jaden, it's just that I thought you were an intruder." I apologized.

"Well, I'm glad I'm not," Jaden said, rubbing the back of his head. "If I was, I would've been in serious trouble."

We laughed.

"What are you doing up so late anyway?" I questioned him.

"Well I was sleeping before and I missed out on dinner. Amber said that I could help myself if I got hungry."

"That's fine," I answered smiling.

Suddenly, I began to hear some strange noises.

"Jaden," I said, now starting to feel really worried. "Can you hear that?" I asked him.

"Hear what Bec?" he said, looking at me confused.

"That!" I said as I heard the noise a second time.

I then began to blink like crazy because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There next to Jaden was a Kuriboh. He was jumping up and down as if asking me to play with him. I rubbed my eyes, but the cute little fur ball still wouldn't go away.

"Jaden, I think it's best if I go to bed. I'm really tired and I'm starting to see things." I said, shaking my head.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Promise me you won't laugh," I said, looking at him.

"Promise." he said, nodding.

"Alright. I can see this Winged Kuriboh, jumping up and down next to you."

Jaden didn't say anything at first, but then I saw a smile spread across his face.

"Go ahead, call me crazy," I said, laughing.

"Bec you're not crazy," he said smiling. "You just have the ability to see duel spirits. I can see them too."

"Really?" I asked, in astonishment.

"You bet!" he said, giving me a thumbs up. "And this little guy standing next to me, he's a good pal."

The Winged Kuriboh jumped up and down in happiness in hearing what Jaden had said.

I smiled, I felt happy to know that I was blessed with this amazing gift. I was even happier to hear that I shared this ability with one of my closest friends.

"We're the lucky ones Bec." he said, patting the fluff ball next to him.

"I know," I answered back.

Then all of a sudden I remembered how tired I was.

"Jaden," I said, looking at him. "I've had a pretty long day, so I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Ok Bec. I'll see you in the morning," he said smiling at me.

"Goodnight," I said, waving at him.

"Goodnight." he replied back.

To my surprise, the Winged Kuriboh gave me a little wave with its paw. This made me giggle, it was such a cute sight to see.

Heading to my room, I changed into my pajamas. Lying on my bed I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.


	16. Chapter 16 - Meeting the parents

It was Christmas day.

Snowflakes fell from the sky decorating the pavement with a blanket of snow. Looking out the window I smiled. Domino city was so beautiful, especially in the winter months. Getting up out of my bed I showered and dressed. I then made my way to the kitchen to make breakfast.

"Merry Christmas Sis!" Amber yelled, pulling me into a warm hug.

"Merry Christmas Amber!" I replied back, returning her hug.

Stepping back from her I saw Jaden. He was smiling at me. "Merry Christmas!" he said, standing a good distance away.

"What, I don't get a hug with my Merry Christmas?" I said. slightly furrowing my brow.

Jaden laughed nervously. "I say we leave the cuddly, touchy stuff between you and Zane."

"And I say we..." I thought for a second. All of a sudden I had an idea, leaning over I whispered something in Amber's ear. After hearing what I had to say she smiled and nodded in response.

"On the count of three," I said, giving her a cheeky smile.

"ONE...TWO...THREE!" I yelled.

Amber and I raced up to Jaden pulling him into a group hug. He yelled in surprise as not only were we both squeezing the life out of him but, at time same time we were both blowing raspberries on his cheeks. It was fun just seeing the look on his face.

"Help, I've been ambushed!" he yelped, struggling in- between.

After we thought the torture had gone on long enough, we both let go. It was so funny seeing how Jaden was so childish for his age and still quite squirmish around girls.

"Never...do...that...again," he said, in between many deep breaths.

"Well, it's either that or regular hugs." I teased.

"Regular hugs it is!" he quickly replied.

After eating breakfast all three of us gathered around the Christmas tree to exchange gifts. Amber had given me a gift voucher from Forever 21.

"Thanks, Amber," I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

I then gave her my present. She tore the wrapping off roughly with lots of excitement on her face, just as a little kid would've done at Christmas time. Her eyes widened in disbelief when realized what the present was.

"Bec, how did you know that I always wanted one of these?" she asked, grinning widely.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you've been talking about getting one the entire year!" I said, with slight sarcasm in my voice.

"So true," she said, laughing.

"Oh, your turn Jaden," I said, handing an envelope to him. "This is from the both of us."

"Thanks." he said, taking it from me.

Amber and I began to giggle together as he started to open it.

"Sweet!" he exclaimed. "This is the best Christmas present ever!"

"We knew you'd love it," I said. "Since you love to eat."

"Of course, the best present for you was an all you can eat Buffet Voucher," Amber added.

"I can't wait," Jaden smiled. "Oh, and I got something for you guys too."

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out two tickets, he then handed them to Amber and I. Taking a look at the tickets I was shocked to see that they were for a match at the pro leagues.

"Jaden!" I cried out in surprise. "Aren't these tickets like super expensive?"

Jaden shrugged. "It's no biggie. My parents are business people, so they get big discounts on things like this"

"Jaden, thank you." we both said in unison.

That's when I suddenly remembered. The Christmas lunch.  
"Oh guys, I better start heading off to Zane's house now," I said, looking at the clock then looking back at them. "Any quick words of advice for meeting his parents?"

"Hmm..." Amber began to ponder. "Well, for starters don't talk with your mouth full."

Making a mental note, I nodded.

"And your clothes aren't too revealing. So that's positive," she said, looking me up and down.

"Oooh, oooh, I got something." Jaden jumped in. "Sy told me what his parents are like."

I raised an eyebrow interested in what he had to say. "This could be useful," I told myself.

"Well, Sy told me that his parents are really strict and stuff."

"Way to psych her out Jaden," Amber said, frowning at him.

Jaden laughed nervously as she continued to give him a death stare.

"None of that matters guys," I said, walking towards the door. "I'll just have to go and face the music."

"Good luck!" they both called out as I left.

As I trudged through the snow in my gumboots so many thoughts circled through my head. "What if they don't like me? What if I totally embarrass myself in front of them? What if they tell Zane that he could do better? This was one of the things that I absolutely hated about myself. I always thought about what was going to happen in the future instead of trying to enjoy the here and now.

"Its all going to be ok," I reassured myself. "I bet they will be kind, friendly people."

Shaking all the negative thoughts out of my head, I decided to stay positive. After all, it was only natural for a girl to feel a little nervous when meeting her boyfriend's parents .

Finally, I arrived at their doorstep. "This is it!" I whispered, as I fixed my hair and dusted a few snowflakes off my jacket. Taking a deep breath, I pressed the doorbell and took a step back. I then heard a series of footsteps before the front door opened.

There standing in the doorway was a middle aged man with blue eyes and blue hair. His expression was serious and stoic. Based on the similarities that I had observed, I guessed that he was Zane's father.

"Rebecca?" he questioned, sounding quite monotonous.

"Yeah," I replied, giving my friendliest smile.

"Come in."

Stepping into the house I began to look around. The place was well-appointed with lovely marble flooring, the sheer curtains beautifully billowed like mist against the walls. Their furniture was antique like, mostly made of oak with hand-carved workmanship. Near the far wall, you would see the leather settees, covered by luxurious fur throw rugs. To say that this place was beautiful was an understatement. From the looks of things, you would tell that his family was indeed very wealthy.

"Take a seat." he said, gesturing towards the leather settee.

I smiled and sat down. The fact that he didn't attempt to reciprocate my smile made me feel like an idiot, but it was best to remain as cordial. I knew that first impressions did count, and I wanted to give him the best one possible.

After a few minutes of twiddling my thumbs anxiously, I was approached by both Zane and Syrus.

"Merry Christmas Bec!" he exclaimed, pulling me into a hug.

"Merry Christmas Sy!" I replied hugging him back.

Then I turned my attention to Zane. "Hello, you!" I said, grinning widely. I then tilted my head upward in anticipation for a kiss. Unfortunately, Zane ignored my advances towards him and pulled me into an awkward hug.

"Merry Christmas Rebecca," he said, softly.

As I moved back from the hug I frowned at him, as if to ask "What was all that about?" He then gave me a subtle head tilt to his left-hand side. Looking across I saw that his father was watching us from a distance, his hands folded in a stern manner. I then nodded at him, as if to acknowledge that I knew what he meant.

Abruptly a head popped out of the kitchen. There I saw a small lady with green hair and green eyes. It was obvious that this woman was Mrs. Truesdale. I giggled softly as I could now tell who Syrus had gotten his "good looks" from.

"Hello honey, you must be Rebecca," she said, smiling sweetly as she stepped out of the kitchen. "Zane has told me so much about you," she said, greeting me by kissing both my cheeks. Now I could also tell where Syrus had gotten his kind, sweet personality from.

"Does everyone want to come to the dining room? Lunch is ready," she said smiling. Everyone then nodded and entered the dining room.

The table was set in a lovely manner. It was abundant with lots of different tasty food, which was making everyone's mouth water. I couldn't wait to try everything at the table, it looked so delicious. Mrs. Truesdale sure was a good cook.

Finally, we all sat down at the table and began to eat. I delicately picked at my food, hoping that by doing this both his parents would see me as a polite and well-mannered girl. I couldn't help but feel slightly nervous as I saw both Mr. and Mrs. Truesdale glancing at me every once in a while. Then all of a sudden, Mr. Truesdale cleared his throat. "Oh no, here comes the interrogation," I told myself.

"So Rebecca," he began. "Where did you meet Zane?"

"I met him at the entrance examination," I replied.

"So you've known each other for two years?" he asked. "And you only began dating recently?"

"Actually, I met him at this year's entrance exam," I said smiling. I hoped that he would pick up on my positive vibes and return them back, however, he still remained cold and monotonous towards me.

There was a slight pause as harshly placed his metal cutlery against the table. "So you're only in first year, like Syrus?" he questioned, widening his eyes in disbelief.

"Correct." I gulped nervously.

He then snorted in response.

"David!" Mrs. Truesdale hissed. "Be nice."

"Isn't she a bit young for him?" he questioned, looking at her with concern on his face.

"Don't do this now," she pleaded, shaking her head.

He then turned his focus on Zane. "What else have you lied about?"

"Nothing!" Zane shot back coldly.

"What are you going to tell me next Zane, huh? That she's in the Slifer dorm?" he questioned.

"Ra, actually." Syrus piped in.

"Stay out of this Syrus!" he yelled.

Syrus' face dropped, he then turned his head down and resumed eating.

"And to think you said she was a good duelist," he scoffed.

"She is," Zane growled, he was now quite irritated.

I shuffled in my seat, my face flushing bright red in color. "Please make this stop," I prayed, as the current situation I was in was making me feel extremely uncomfortable. Unexpectedly my prayers were answered.

Mrs. Truesdale stood up from the table and spoke in her loudest voice. "DAVID STOP!"

At first, Mr. Truesdale looked quite taken aback by what had just happened. His facial expression overcome with shock. After enduring a long fifteen-second glare from Mrs. Truesdale, he then sighed and continued to eat his meal. Everyone else at the table did the same.

Afterwards, Syrus, Zane and I sat down in the living area watching Television. Zane's parents remained in the dining room. Every once in a while, I could hear them raise their voices, it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were arguing.

"I am so sorry..." Zane began to apologise.

"Don't worry I'm fine," I said forcing a smile.

"Are you sure?" Syrus asked me, looking quite worried. "He was being pretty mean."

"It's all good," I reassured him.

"I know what will cheer you up, some dueling action!" Syrus said smiling.

"Huh, you want to have a duel? Like now?" I questioned, I was surprised at his strange request.

"No, I mean watch some dueling. On TV!" he laughed.

"If you say so," I replied.

Zane then took the television remote and began to flick through the channels. He finally stopped on a channel that was airing live matches of the pro leagues.

"That will be us someday," Zane said, smiling at me.

I winked at him. "You know it!"

Suddenly my heart skipped a beat, I couldn't believe what I saw.  
There on the television dueling was my sister, just the sight of her made me feel sick. We had missed the beginning of the duel, but from the looks things she was leading by a mile. The crowd cheered loudly for her as it was now her draw.

"Megan is one tough duelist!" Syrus said, his eyes sparkling with wonder. "And you know what's funny Bec," he continued "You and Megan have the same last name and she even kind of looks like you too."

I felt like I couldn't take it anymore.

"Guy's can we please change the channel?" I asked them, with eagerness in my voice.

"Why would you want to do that?" Syrus questioned. "This is going to be a good match."

"Yeah," Zane agreed with his brother. "It'll be interesting to see how she finishes off her opponent."

"Please?" I continued to beg them.

"No way Bec, we're staying on the pro-leagues channel," Syrus said frowning at me.

Suddenly I just lost it.

"I SAID TURN IT OFF!" I screamed, causing them both to flinch in their seat.

Standing up, I marched towards the door. Opening the door I stepped outside and slammed it behind me.

 _"I couldn't take it anymore. The sight of her just hurt so much"_


	17. Chapter 17 - Explaining family ties

As I slammed the door behind me I started to sob. The temperature outside was freezing that I could feel the cold air ripping at my cheeks, it even made the tears in my eyes sting.

 _"Why does seeing her make me so upset when I don't care about her anymore?"_

I then began to run off into the distance. I wanted to get as far away from that stupid TV as possible. All of a sudden I heard a voice behind me. It was Zane.

"Rebecca, stop!" he called out behind me.

For some strange reason, this had the opposite effect on me it only made me more determined to get away. I quickened my speed and continued to run. "He would never understand," I thought to myself. "Nobody does."

Zane then sighed heavily and began to run after me. Despite my efforts to stay in the lead, he easily caught up to me. This was probably due him being a lot taller and his legs were a lot longer than mine were. When he was only a few centimetres away from me he reached forward and grabbed me. He then pulled his arms around me in a tight brace.

"Let go!" I yelled, struggling against his embrace.

"Shhh... shhh..." he hushed me "It's all going to be ok."

I frantically fought against him, but it only made him hold tighter

"Rebecca, look at me," he said.

I ignored him and continued to make efforts to gain my freedom.

"I said, look at me!" he said again, his voice much louder.

I didn't know what it was but something had compelled me to stop completely. Using his finger, Zane lifted my head up from my chin, forcing me to gaze right into his eyes. Looking into his beautiful blue eyes I felt an immediate sense of calm, no-one I had ever known had this effect on me before. It's just like staring into them made me lose all my anger, hatred, and sadness, the only thing I felt now was love.

I began to inhale and exhale deeply as my crying had made me extremely exhausted. Once my breathing reached a normal level, I raised my head again to look at him. He gave me a small smile and wiped my remaining tears with his sleeve. He then pushed my head towards him, letting it rest on the top of his chest. Listening to his heartbeat had me at peace, it was the ultimate comforter that anyone could have.

"All better?" he questioned, noticing that I had calmed down quite a bit.

I simply nodded in response.

"Good" he replied, kissing my hair.

Later we both found our way to a park bench and sat down. I assumed that he wanted an explanation for my outburst earlier, Anyway how could I blame him? Even my reaction towards what happened earlier had me surprised. "It's best for me to tell him the truth," I told myself. "He'll have to find out sooner or later." I took a breath to say something, but unexpectedly Zane spoke first.

"It's about my dad isn't it?" he asked, he had a sombre expression on his face. "I don't care what he says Rebecca," he began. " I want to be with you and he can't change that," he said, squeezing my hand.

I sighed. "I didn't break down earlier because of your dad Zane" I began. "There's something important that I need to tell you,"

"Ok..." Zane said slowly, looking quite serious.

"Remember that pro-league match that we were watching?" I asked him.

"How is that even relevant?" he asked, frowning in confusion.

"Oh, believe me. it is"

"Alright, proceed," he said nodding. "And yes I do remember that dueling match that we were watching."

"And you know the duelist that was playing at the time?" I continued.

"Yeah, Megan Anderson right?" he questioned.

"Well she's kind of my older sister,"

It came to no surprise that Zane was too stunned to say anything at first. His eyes just widened in shock as he was mentally trying to come to terms with the major bombshell that I had just dropped on him. Someone ranked in the world's top ten duelists was my older sister and I hadn't even bothered to say anything to anyone about it.

"And seeing her before made you feel upset?" Zane asked, sporting a very confused look on his face. "But why?"

I felt quite uneasy having to go into more details about the matter, but I promised myself that I would be completely honest with him. "Well let's just say we didn't have the best kind of relationship," I said.

"What kind was it?" he urged.

"Kind of like you and Syrus, but worse" I explained. "She never believed that I was good enough when it came to dueling and she thought it would be best if I called it quits,"

After saying this I saw Zane's face was covered with guilt. He now probably realised why I was so upset about the situation between him and Syrus. Zane constantly spent his life telling his little brother that he was pathetic and that he could never be good enough and now he was seeing how damaged his own girlfriend had become from her older sister treating her the same way.

"What do your parents think of this?" Zane continued. "Mom always tells me that I'm being too hard on Sy. Is it like that with your family?"

"Well, that's the thing," I began. "My parents and I haven't spoken in years. I've been doing everything on my own, my way now. I do admit at times it does get tough, trying to balance extra shifts with school to pay for things such as rent, electricity and water bills. Sometimes I think I can't cope with it all but I always manage in the end because it is a matter of survival for me,"

"And Amber?"

"She's the closest thing that I have to family since I've been on my own. In a sense, you could say that she has become my sister" I said.

"I am so sorry. I had no idea," Zane sympathised.

"Don't be silly," I said, smiling. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?"

Zane gave me a faint smile. He paused again, I could tell he was thinking of something to say. Finally, he spoke up again. "Do you always get like this when you see her?" he questioned.

I shook my head, "Not always. It's just whenever I see her I'm given the constant reminder of how she and my parents left me all alone. I try and tell myself that I am better off without them, but sometimes seeing them hurts. I mean seeing them going on with their everyday lives, being so happy without me in it," After saying this I could feel my eyes tearing up again.

"Well one thing for sure," Zane said, stroking the side of my face. "I will never abandon you like they did."

I leant forward and gave him a big hug, "Thanks, Zane!"

"Anyway I think we should be getting back now," he said, looking at the dark sky around him. "It's getting pretty late and also you are still yet to try mom's Christmas pudding.

"Right," I said, smiling at him.

~Timeskip~

When we both arrived back at his house, we saw that his whole family was seated in the living room. Following Zane's lead, I sat down on a chair next to him. Unexpectedly Mr Truesdale got up from his chair and walked over to sit down on a seat that closer to where I was. After ensuring contact with me, he started to speak.

"Rebecca, I'd like to apologise about my behavior earlier," he began. "The truth is that you are a very nice girl and I had no right to defame you the way I did."

"That's alright, I forgive you," I replied, smiling at him.

I didn't know if I was imagining or not. After I accepted his apology I think I even saw the corners of his lips turn slightly upwards into a smile for a few seconds, but shortly after his serious expression took over.

He then looked at Zane and said, "You've picked a good one,"

Zane nodded in response.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Syrus exclaimed, "Who wants Christmas pudding?"

"Me!" everyone said in unison, however, I was the most enthusiastic one out of the lot as the other replies were given by both Zane and his father.

"Ok, I'll serve us some," Mrs. Truesdale smiled, as she got up from her seat. "Oh, by the way, Zane that reminds me, did you remember to give Rebecca her Christmas present?" she asked.

"Oh right!" he said, realising that he had forgotten. "Um, it's in my room," he said, standing up and leading me up the stairs.

"And Zane," Mrs. Truesdale continued, "Make sure to keep your room door open. I don't want any hanky-panky upstairs,"

"Yes mom!" he replied, slightly irritated. I could see that he was annoyed because she embarrassed him.

After we both finished climbing the stairs we entered his bedroom. It came to no surprise that his room was just was proper and neat as his dorm room on Duel Academy Island. After asking me to take a seat on his bed, he pulled out a small jewelry box from his draw and handed it to me.

"Merry Christmas!" he said, now very much warmer than before, possibly now because I wasn't being watched by his dad.

After opening the box I gasped as I saw what was inside. It was a beautiful silver necklace with a teardrop shaped pendant. The lights in his room refracted through it causing it to sparkle and glimmer magically. As I was too shocked for words I didn't know what do say, luckily for me he did.

"Do you wanna put it on?" he asked.

I excitedly nodded and turned around, waiting patiently for him to put the clasp it around my necklace. After he had put it on he took a step back to look at me, a small smile formed on his face.

"It looks good on you," he said.

"Thanks, Zane!" I said, pulling him into a warm hug.

"That's not all, I kind of got you something else," he said smiling.

"Zane you didn't have to..." I began.

"No, but I wanted to," he said, placing a duel monsters card upside down in my hand.

Turning the card around I couldn't believe what I saw. "Its a cyber dragon!" I exclaimed.

He nodded. "I thought it would be the perfect addition to your deck since you mainly use dragon monsters," he said. "Also you can think of me whenever you play it."

"Both the necklace and the card they are so beautiful," I said, kissing him on the cheek.

"No," Zane said. "You're beautiful!" Then he lifted me up and pulled me into a kiss. Out of all the Christmas gifts, he had given me, this was the best out of them all.


	18. Chapter 18 - Some Unexpected Guests

"Hmmm, that's odd..." I thought to myself, inspecting my surroundings. "I swear that's like the fifth time this week that I have seen a black van outside our apartment."

"What's up Bec?" Jaden asked, cocking his head to one side.

"Oh nothing," I said, shaking my head.

Jaden didn't look too convinced. "No seriously tell me. What is it?"

I sighed. "Call me crazy Jaden, but I swear that black van has been stalking us this whole week."

"Nah, I wouldn't call you crazy, maybe just a little paranoid," he said, laughing and scratching the back of his head. "Don't be silly, there is no-one following us."

"If you say so," I mumbled.

Jaden and I continued to walk down the street towards the centre of Domino city. Maybe like Jaden said I was just being paranoid, but for some reason, I had a strange feeling in my gut that something wasn't quite right. To try and rid my head of this thoughts it was best to come up with a logical explanation. "These black vans are simply just for transportation services," I told myself. "I mean why would anyone be interested in following two teenagers around Domino city? It just doesn't make sense!"

Seeing that I was deep in thought, Jaden prodded me with his index finger. "Bec," he asked, sounding slightly concerned, "Are you alright?" I guessed that me being quite had him worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, faking a smile. Luckily he bought it.

"Sweet!" he exclaimed. "Then let's keep going,"

Taking one final look behind me I caught sight of the van. Inside it was a man with a stern face, I could have sworn that he was staring right back at me but I wasn't entirely sure as he was wearing black sunglasses. Suddenly the engine of the black van roared to life and speed straight past us, causing me to shudder.

 _"At least he's gone now," I said, attempting to comfort myself._

After a ten-minute walk, Jaden and I were now in the centre of Domino.  
Both of us were excited as we had so many fun things planned for today. Domino city had so many amazing things to do such as the arcade, the cinemas as well as some cool eating places. There were so many different things to do that I struggled to decide what to do first.

"Today is going to be awesome!" Jaden exclaimed, grinning widely.

"Yeah," I nodded in agreement. "So what do you wanna do first?"

"Hmmmm..." Jaden pondered, tapping his chin. "I think we should check out the Kame Game Shop."

"Kame?!" I exclaimed. "Isn't that where the king of games lives?" I was absolutely ecstatic that Jaden had suggested an idea as brilliant as this. It would be of uttermost privilege to be the in same premises as the world's number one duelist.

"Yep let's just hope he's home," he said, smiling broadly. "Fingers crossed!"

"Anyway, even if we miss Yugi, we will still get to meet his grandpa," I said enthusiastically. "I heard that he taught Yugi everything that he knows about duel monsters. Dueling talent must run in the family."

Hearing myself say that last phrase made me grimace in pain. "Argh not again!" I told myself. No matter how difference the circumstances were if there was two siblings and dueling involved I would always relate it back to me. I had to stop acting like this or today was going to be a repeat of Christmas with Zane. Even though I was completely honest with him it wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. I just had to keep myself together. I was having a really good day today and I didn't want to wreck it explaining things to Jaden.

"Oooh, I can't wait!" Jaden said, excitedly hopping from foot to foot.

I sighed in relief, Jaden was oblivious to my little slip up earlier. I still had to be careful next time, though.

"Bec, why don't we race there?" Jaden questioned, with a cheeky smile on his face.

"Jaden that is so childish..." I groaned.

Next thing I knew he was running off into the distance. "Last one there's a rotten egg!"

Knowing that I had no other choice I picked up my speed and ran after him.

Finally both Jaden and I reached the outside of Kame. There we saw an old man wearing a bandana and overalls sweeping the front of the shop. I knew he could only be one person... Yugi's Grandpa. He was muttering something under his breath as he carried on with his chores.

I approached him wearing a huge smile on my face. "Hello, Mr. Muto. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

The old man looked up at me with a confused expression on his face. Perhaps my over the top enthusiasm and friendliness had made him feel uncomfortable. Jaden then walked across from behind me giving him a wave.

After pausing for a moment of thought the old man spoke up. "Tell me, my young friends, do you happen to be friends of Yugi's?"

"Ahaha, we wish!" Jaden said, laughing.

"Mr. Muto," I began, in my politest voice. "Would Yugi happen to be at home right now? We sure would love to meet him,"

He shook his head in sadness. "Yugi hasn't been home in months. The boy's always off on an adventure with those friends of his."

"Oh," I said, looking down in disappointment. It sucked that Jaden and I were actually so close to meeting him and it had backfired. No surprise, Jaden didn't get down about the current situation and remained quite optimistic.

"Don't worry Bec, We can meet Yugi another time," he said, smiling at me.

"I guess you're right," I said, smiling back and returning his optimism

"Hey Mr. Muto, do you have any cool cards you can show us?" Jaden asked eagerly.

"I sure do," he said, chuckling at seeing how keen Jaden was. "Right this way kids," he said, leading both Jaden and I into the game shop.

 ** _~Fast forward~_**

"Bye, Mr. Muto!" Jaden and I called in unison, as we left the game shop.

"Awesome!" I beamed, staring down at the card in my hand. Yugi's grandfather was so kind to gift Jaden and I with a card each. After carefully assessing both our decks he had picked out the perfect cards to compliment their strengths. He had given me the rare card - Megamorph

"Sweet card!" Jaden exclaimed, glancing over at my card.

"You too," I replied back looking at his. "It will be exciting to try these out in a real duel"

Unexpectedly Jaden's stomach rumbled. He laughed nervously as his hand quickly surfaced his torso.

"Looks like someone's hungry," I said, teasing him.

"Yeah," he replied. "Bec do you think we could stop and get something to eat? I'm starving!"

"Sure," I said, "I could use something to eat also.

Since Jaden and I couldn't be bothered looking around, we decided to settle for the closest eating place that there was - Burgerpalooza. After ordering our meals Jaden and I sat down at a table, it felt good to relax as both of our legs were aching from practically running around the whole of Domino. In a matter of no time, our food had arrived at our table. We were so hungry that we began eating immediately.

"Today's been sweet!" Jaden said, taking a big mouthful of his burger. "Why didn't Amber come? She's missing out on all the fun."

"Yeah, I know," I replied. "Unfortunately today she got stuck at work," I said, giving a pouty face.

"Can't she skip one shift?" Jaden questioned. "I mean at my place my parents have got the working department covered."

"Me too," I lied. "It's just that Amber is um... saving up for a car, that's why she needs the extra money."

"Oh, I see," Jaden said, taking a sip from his drink. "It's really cool that she's buying one herself."

The truth was getting a car was the least of our priorities. We just didn't have the funds for it and we wouldn't have them for a long while. Being two teenagers working at Starbucks we struggled to find the money to pay our bills and the rent for the apartment. Eviction notices were a current occurrence, but we were luckily able to pay our way out of them. At the moment we weren't short of money, it's just that at times things were a bit tight.

"By the way Bec, how come I never see your parents at home?" Jaden asked, looking quite curious.

"Um... they're on a business trip" I quickly replied.

"And Amber's?"

"Yep them too," I answered quickly. "They work for the same company,"

 _I wish he would stop asking me all these questions._

"Well maybe next time we're in Domino I could meet them,"

"Yeah maybe..." I fibbed.

"Great!" he said and continued eating.

Examining the time on my watch I attempted to change the subject. "It's 2 o' clock now, which reminds we that Amber should have just finished work some time ago."

"Aww does that mean we should head back?" Jaden asked. I could hear the disappointment in his voice.

"No way, I having way too much fun," I said smiling. "Why don't we go to the arcade next?"

 _ **Meanwhile back at the apartment...**_

 **Amber's Point of View -**

"Phewww!" I sighed, turning my key in the lock. Applying force on the front door, it swung open and I entered. It had been a long, tiresome day at work and I was happy to be finally home.  
First things first, I had to get comfortable. Kicking off my shoes and throwing my jacket on the stand, I proceeded to the kitchen. I was starving and I needed to eat some food to eat and fast. Fixing myself a bowl of nachos, I walked to the living room and switched on the TV. Putting in one of my favourite DVD and rested my head on the arm of the couch. It would be a while till Bec and Jaden got back and I needed to do something to kill time.

Unexpectedly there was a knock on the door.

"Oh, they must be back," I stated, sitting in an upright position."Guys I'm coming!"

I began to advance towards the door and the knocking continued. It was persistent, loud and in steady rhythms, much different to the way that Bec usually knocked. "That's a change," I thought chuckling to myself. "At least she's not trying to break down the door. They must've forgotten the keys,"

Grinning widely I turned the knob and opened the door however, my smile soon dropped in a matter of seconds. The people standing in front of me were not who I had expected. They were not Bec and Jaden at all...


	19. Chapter 19 - Begin The Plan

**Amber's Point of View:**

There standing at the door were two men. Both of them had black hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion, it could be easily recognized that they were related to one another. Despite their similarities they contained distinct physical differences. For instance one of them had a lean build, short hair and was clean shaven. He would be best described as your typical pretty boy. The other one was much broader and had longer hair, a small patch of facial hair covered his chin. The duo wore expensive suits, I could even smell the new leather on their shoes. Whoever these men were they were not your average, everyday blokes. They had a reason, a purpose for being here and I wanted to find out what it was. Maybe it would be best to sus them out first before I jumped to any conclusions.

"Can I help you?" I asked in my politest voice.

"Actually yes," the man with the broader structure replied. "We were wondering if anyone by the name of Rebecca Anderson lives at this address?"

"Who wants to know?" I shot back defensively. Who were these guys and what did they want with Bec? I wanted an explanation from these two and fast No way was I going to sell out my best-friend to these creeps.

The one will the leaner build snickered at my hostile response, "We're friends of hers," he replied.

Did they really think that I was that stupid? Of course, I knew these guys weren't friends with Bec. Judging from their appearance they looked to be aged in their mid-twenties or older which made me doubt that they were her good pals, even if they were she had never mentioned anything about them to me before. Whatever they wanted with Bec, I knew it wasn't good. Perhaps it would be best if I got them to leave before things could get any worse.

"I'm sorry," I began, giving an apologetic smile. "But no-one by that name lives at this address." Hastily I began to shut the door, however to my horror they were too quick for me. Before I could shut the door fully, the larger man wedged his foot in the door and forced it open causing me to fumble backwards. They both entered the apartment laughing as they pushed me aside.

"Check all the rooms Jagger!" he ordered, as the other one frantically rushed around the apartment looking for my best friend.

After a few minutes of searching, the one known as "Jagger" came back to express his disappointment to his companion. "Damn it!" he cursed. "You said she'd be here,"

"Looks like we've been given incorrect information," the other growled in response. "No matter," he said, casting his gaze at me. "We can still find out what we want from you,"

Both of them began to advance towards me, laughing evilly. I wanted to run away, but where would I go? They had me trapped, they had me cornered."Stay back!" I yelled, my voice wavering nervously. I took one step backwards for every step that they advanced forwards. To make things even worse, my cell phone began to ring.

"I'll take that!" the pretty boy smirked, as the other one pulled my arms behind my back. "Aw, look who's calling," he mocked, turning my phone screen to face me. I could now see that the phone call was from Bec. "It's a shame you're too busy to talk right now," he said, declining the call. He then tossed my cell phone to the other side of the room.

"What do you want from me?" I yelled angrily. "Well answer me,"

"Nothing with you," answered the wider man. " However your friend, she plays a very important part in our plan,"

"But why?" I asked, feeling quite puzzled.

"You're giving her too much information Slade," the slimmer one cautioned.

"Will you just relax brother," he said quite a casual tone. "I've got this,"

He simply rolled his eyes in response.

"We've been watching her every move," he continued. "We know everything about her. Where she is at what time, where she goes to school, where she works..."

"If you claim to know so much, then why didn't you know what she would be here?" I stated, with slight sarcasm in my voice.

Both men frowned at my smart comment. "We may have missed her this time," one of them said eyeing me "But we know that she will be attending work tomorrow,"

"Yes of course," his brother joined in, "You need the money, after all, don't you?" Oh, how I wanted to wipe that smug smile off his face.

 _"How the hell did these jerks know so much about us?"_

"What if I tell her not to go to work tomorrow?" I began. "Or better yet, what's to stop me from calling the cops on your ass?"

They both paused for a while. I guess they were no expecting me to say what I did. Suddenly one of them started to speak again.

"Your friend Rebecca," the one known as Slade began. "Do you value her life?"

"Is that a threat?" I asked in disgust.

"No it's simply a question," he answered in return.

I was in too much shock to say anything back. Of course, I cared for Bec. She was the only family I had left and if she got hurt because of me I could never forgive myself. I guessed that they took my silence as a victory as they both headed towards the door with a triumphant smile on their face.

"Good day Miss Stone," and with that, they both left the apartment.

As soon as they left I stiffly walked towards my phone. Picking it up I listened to the dial tone or the receiver, however, I sighed heavily and placed it down again. If I called the police I would only be putting her in more danger I thought to myself, then again what will happen to her if I didn't. Would that be equally as bad? Feeling completely powerless I slumped on the floor tears streaming down my face, hoping and praying that she would be alright.

 ** _Immediately after leaving the apartment the Princeton brothers began to quarrel..._**

"You imbecile!" Jagger yelled angrily at his brother, "You said my name in there and now she knows who we are!"

"If I can remember correctly you said my name too!" Slade hissed back at him. "I doubt she'll remember anyway and even if she does she'll probably be too scared to say anything,"

"I guess you're right," he said exhaling deeply. "We've got nothing to worry about,"

"Exactly," Slade replied, smiling back at him. "Once we deliver Chazz his little lady friend hopefully that will give him enough incentive to do his part in our plan,"

"World Domination here we come!" Jagger exclaimed, rubbing his hands together.

They both laughed in unison and continued their way out of the apartment building.

 **~Timeskip~**

 **Rebecca's Point of View:**

After a long day out, Jaden and I had finally arrived home. Turning my keys in the lock, I opened the door. To my greatest surprise our apartment seemed unusually quiet and empty, I found it quite strange that Amber hadn't even come to the front door to greet us upon our return.

"Amber?" I called out to our ghost town apartment, sadly I got no reply.

I bit my lip and looked at Jaden, "Do you think she's gone out?" I questioned.

He simply shrugged, "I don't know, maybe. I think I'll have a shower and freshen up," he said, heading towards the bathroom.

As soon as he shut the door behind him, I raced up and down the apartment in search of Amber. After searching the whole apartment and finding nothing I was flooded with panic. Where could she have gone I thought to myself. Luckily there was one more place in the apartment for me to check - the kitchen.

Peeping my head into the kitchen I had finally found her. She was sitting on the floor next to the pantry with a big steaming mug in her hand. Her once vibrant emerald eyes appeared a dull jade color, little red blotches decorated her cheeks making me wonder if she had been crying. She glumly stirred her drink with one finger in a clockwise motion.

"Amber!" I exclaimed as I ran up to her. I bent down so now that I was at eye level with her. "Are you alright?" I asked, my eyes wide with concern.

"Yeah," she replied hastily. "How was your day out?'

"Don't worry about me," I said, taking a seat next to her, "I want to know how you are. How come you never returned my call?"

She simply stared into the distance not replying my question. It was as if her mind was somewhere else.

"Hello, earth to Amber!" I said, gently rocking her shoulder. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine," she answered again, I could hear slight irritation in her voice. Yes perhaps I was annoying her, but she was my best-friend and I was worried about her.

"So Amber, why didn't you return my call?" I repeated again.

This time she continued to sip her coffee, ignoring the fact that I was even there. She could deny it all she wanted but I knew something was up with her, and I was going to find out what it was.

"You know Amber," I began, "I'm your best friend and you can tell me anything..."

"JUST DROP IT BEC!" she snapped, causing me to flinch backwards. She then stood up with her coffee, walked towards her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

 _"Oh, Amber," I thought. "I really hope that you're ok."_


End file.
